The Unlikely Legends: How We Met
by Lindsay Starling
Summary: Life is at work in Clan Dunbroch. Merida is going to be betrothed to one of the sons of the four kingdoms, and is struggling to get out of it. On the other side of the ocean, in the town of Berk, Hiccup discovers that he will be competing for a Scottish princesses hand in marriage. To make matters worse, he still has not told anyone about the dragon he is hiding in the forest.
1. Chapter 1: The Four Letters

Chapter One

The four letters

Some say are destiny is tied to the land, as much a part of us as we are of it. Others say fate is woven together like a cloth, so that once destiny intertwined with many others, it's the one thing we all search for or fight to change, some never find it, but there are some that are led. But I don't believe in those legends, I don't believe that we are defined by are land or are status, I believe that are fate lies with in the others we meet and not the land we toil over. We have one person that we are defined by, one person that defines us and one person that we truly share everything with. I had not met my one person yet and was not at all eager too, for when that one person is found you realize who you are and what you want out of the time that is given to you, and I was not ready to no what I wanted out of life just yet, having to much fun exploring the wrong and the wright ways of living ma life. I was happy with ma solitude, but my mother didn't see that.

I am Merida, first-born descendant of clan DunBrock and I was happy. Ma life was not with out its flaws; ma mother was a prim example. She's in charge of every single day of ma life. I have a certain a mount of responsibility around the kingdom, being the princess and all, but ma mother didn't seem to understand that I can do things on ma own and do not need her telling me every step that I need to take. But I don't want to think about ma mum wright now, because today is one of those rare days when I don't have to be a princess. This is the day that our story starts, one particular sunny morning in the high lands of Scotland.

Merida was wrapped tightly in her four-poster bed, her flaming hair covering her face entirely and not allowing the sunlight that was peeping through the dusty curtains to wake the sleeping girl just yet. Merida was dreaming about flying, a popular dream for the young princess, enjoying the freedom and euphoria that only comes with dreamland flights. She had often gotten close to the sensation of flying on her horse Angus, but there was still ground thumping below, the birds were still above her and she never really felt weightless. Merida dreamed of seeing clouds scattered beneath her like tiny islands, feeling nothing around her but the cold bight of air as she sped through the sky, completely free. Smiling into her pillow Merida shifted in her sleep and the curl that was blocking her eyes from the stabbing sunlight dropped to her cheek, letting the light pierce through her eyelids and wake the dreaming princess. "Ah" Merida mumbled as she rolled over in her blankets and pulled the pillow over her head. She mumbled something about lessons and curled her fingers into her long locks, not wanting to get up and be taught how to strive for perfection. But then with a realization that sent a smile to her face Merida remembered that today was one of her special days, the day that she gets all to her self with no lessons to interrupt. Beaming with a memorized joy Merida sprung out of bed, not feeling the least bit sleepy any more. As quickly as she could Merida dressed, grabbing a fist full of dark green material and throwing it on, not caring if it clashed with her hair or was no longer in style, all Merida was thinking about was _go_.

Running down stares Merida grabbed and apple and a biscuit off a tray that Maudie

was carrying, she could hear the maid's cries of shock disapproval as she sprinted down the hall way to the stables. She had everything she needed for a day of fun, a good breakfast, a strong sun with a light breeze, her best horse Angus and her bow. Bursting out of the castle she ran pell-mell to the stabile doors. Agues was already waiting expectantly for his rider as she came to his pen. Smiling Merida strapped his saddle on the steed and gave him the last of her apple to finish. "You ready for some fun?" she asked. The gray horse through his head back in excitement and whinnied. "Wright then lets go!" Merida shouted swinging herself expertly on to the horses back. The pair sped towards the forest running as fast as they could, away from the castle and the rules and lessons that plagued their lives.

The day went as well as Merida had hoped. She had perfected her aim, not missing a single target as she sped through the dark green trees. She climbed the fire falls and drake from the waters, something that only the bravest of the ancient kings would dare to do. And she carved the symbol of flight into her bow, wishing that she could just sower upwards with the eagles that haunted the sky's, flying far away from any thought of rules and princess hood. But like all good things in Merida's life, they were over far to quickly.

Shadows stretched their long fingers out, curling around trees and rocks and reminding Merida of the upcoming darkness. Sighing Merida slung her bow over her shoulder again and pulled herself back on Angus.

Riding back to the castle was never as fun. Merida closed her eyes and pretended to be gliding over Scotland, her head buried in Anguses black main.

Home rows up on the horizon, a grate gray castle made of stones older then any person that has ever taken shelter inside its dark passageways. "Yah" Merida cried, urging Angus forward as the shadows grew longer and darker, twirling and winding up Merida's body to swallow half her face in midnight.

"Yeah think shill nag me for being late again?" Merida asked her whinnying horse as she shut him back in his stall. The horse snorted in response, giving Merida a small flick with his tail. "Blah, oats it is then?" Merida stammered as the tail slapped her square in the face. Angus gave a content snort as Merida went to fill up his troff.

The door banged open as Merida staggered into the dining hall, her arms laden with a plate of sweet roles. Merida's family was half way through dinner, her mother Eleanor trying desperately to get her three little brothers to eat their haggis. Meanwhile Merida's Father Fergus was once again telling the family about his fight with the Daemon Bear Mordu. "Your late for dinner again Merida." Eleanor scolded as the princes trotted into the room.

"Uh Mum." Merida whined, sitting down next to her father.

"Merida really, this is the third time this week and its only Wednesday." Eleanor began, her fingers shuffling absentmindedly through a stack of documents.

"Oh Eleanor leave the girl alone, she's not that late." Fergus retorted, defending his rule-braking daughter.

"Twenty-five minutes is not that late in your mind?" Eleanor replied dryly, looking steely eyed up at her king over one of the documents. Fergus seemed to shrink a little in his seat at that stair.

"Merida honey, try to be on time tomorrow." Fergus mumbled, looking apologetically at his frowning daughter. Merida sighed and took her bow off and placed it next to her on the table.

"Merida, I will not go over this again, no weapons on the table."

"Ah Mum, its just ma bow." Merida groaned, looking stiffly over at her mother, who was still fingering through documents.

"A Princess should not have weapons in my opinion."

"Dad?" Merida whined.

Eleanor all children of the royal house are required to be trained in combat, it's a rule." Fergus saidmatter-of-factly. Eleanor opened her mouth to retort but was interrupted by the family gray's hound jumping up onto Fergus and licking his cheeks.

"Oh don't let them, oh" Eleanor tried, flinching as dog spit and food scattered everyway. Merida giggled then glanced over to Harris, Hubert and Hamish who were still paying with there haggis. Grinning at them she pointed down at the sweet roles. Their three small faces cracked into identical smiles as they nodded once and then ducked under the table. Merida slowly dropped the plate of roles, letting the tray slide down her legs and onto the floor, under the long wooden table. Peering over at their mother to see if she suspected anything Merida frowned too see her anxiously picking up three white, blue and green envelops from a silver tray that Maudie had brought out.

"What are those Mum?" Merida inquired, her red locks falling onto her plate as she looked over at her wide-eyed mother. But the Queen was not paying attention to her; she was completely concentrated on opening each of the letters, hands shaking slightly as she did so. "Mum?" Merida asked again, a bight of impatiens entering her voice.

"Fergus." Eleanor whimpered, looking happily up at her husband. The laughing king looked up from the two gray hounds to his wife, who was holding three envelopes in her trembling figures. "Fergus they've excepted." The king's jaw dropped as he looked from the three scraps of paper to his confused daughter them back again.

"Who's excepted?" Merida asked nervously, her stomach knotting at the look of happiness on her mothers face.

"Boys!" Eleanor commanded, the three triplet's popping up from under the table. "You are excused." Eleanor cooed. The triplets bolted; their green tunic bulging with hidden sweet roles.

The door swung shut behind the giggling princes and Merida sunk a little lower in her seat. "What did I do now?" Merida questioned, looking nervously at her mother.

"Your fathers got something to tell you." Eleanor said sternly and looked expectantly over at her husband. Merida turned her eyes from her mother to her father, the knot in her stomach tightened painfully. Fergus looked terrified at the thought of what he was going to have to say to his daughter. His gaze shifted from Merida's frightened blue stair, to a fork at his place.

"Uh- uh" Fergus stammered, but he was saved by the kitchen door banging open again and Maudie scampering in. The king collapsed back in his chair and gave a sigh of relief. Eleanor looked up at Maudie in confusion as the fat servant handed her another envelope. This one was brown and made of a ruff thick parchment; it was singed slightly in one of the corners and was sealed with black wax. Over all, the thick filthy envelope looked very out of place next to its delicate white, blue and green fellows.

"What in heavens name?" Eleanor whispered, taking the brown parchment from Maudie. A small trail of dirt tumbled down from the ostracized letter, causing the Queen to frown in disgust.

"Its another suitors letter mam." Maudie whispered in answer to Eleanor's lost expression.

"Four? But there are only three kingdoms." Eleanor said slowly realization donning on her pail face. "No, they wouldn't." Eleanor hissed. She slit the envelopes throat with distain and pulled out the grubby letter with unnecessary force. "Oh those barbaric pigs." the Queen spat, peering over the letters contents. Merida's eyes widened at her mothers sharp tongue, never had she ever herd her mother speak like that about anyone in her life.

Eleanor?" Fergus asked, his expression very curious, trying to read his wife's lips as she read over the letter quickly.

Vikings Fergus Vikings!" Eleanor snapped, throwing the letter from her curling fingers and slumping angrily against her chair.

"The Viking's are coming too?" Fergus bellowed joyfully, his whole expression changing from worry to complete euphoria.

"No Fergus no, that's bad."

"No it isn't, that's grate news. Stoick the vast is coming right? With that crazy blacksmith! And it would be his son who's . . . " Fergus stopped smiling at those words, recalling the boys less then normal personality and size. If there was ever a black sheep of the village it was that kid.

"Yes Fergus." Eleanor hissed. "Vikings are bad; they are messy, lowed, frustratingly disobedient and have no idea how to run things properly. Do you really think that this sounds like a good candidate?"

"They don't sound that bad." Merida interjected. Both her parents jumped abruptly, realizing that she was still in the room.

"There not, there grate fun." Fergus laughed, remembering his last visit to the shores of Berk. "Ah do's old Stoick know how to tell a joke and the dancing they do Ha! It's a sight to see." Merida giggled at these words trying to imagine what Viking dancing looked like.

"But his son Fugues, do's that sound like a good idea?" Eleanor pressed, bringing up Stoick's less then everything son.

"Ah well, I will admit he's a bit . . . " Fergus trailed off trying to think of an accurate world for what the boy was.

"Useless, accident prone, completely not what he should be?" Eleanor supplied, folding her arms and glaring at her husband.

"Ah well, to put it lightly. But you never know she might like him."

"Oh no way is she going to like him because he's not coming."  
"Now Eleanor you cant just exclude the Vikings from competing, they are a part of our kingdom so by law they are allowed to put forth a suitor."

"A suitor for what?" Merida asked shakily, the knot now twisting like as snake around her lungs and making it hard to breath.

"Oh four your betrothal." Fergus said casually, but then realizing what he said, slapped a hand over his mouth.

"My what!" Merida bellowed, springing out of her seat and backing away from the table. She looked from her mother's worried face to her father's traumatized one. "I'm not getting married."

"Merida I don't now why your making such a big deal out of this, this is what you have bin preparing for all your life." Eleanor said sternly, her mind not comprehending the frantic look in her daughter's eyes.

"NO! This is what _you_ have bin preparing me for! I wont go through with this! You can't make me!" And with that Merida tor from the dining room slamming the door behind her. Silence fell like snow in the dining hall, Maudie was still standing there with her hands over her mouth and the king and Queen sat flabbergast in their seats. Finally Eleanor broke the silence.

"Subtle Fergus." Said the Queen dryly and got up to follow her fuming daughter. Fergus looked open mouthed at the retreating figure of his wife and then got up as well. Walking stiffly over to the four discarded envelopes he picked them up and placed them in Maudie's trembling hands.

"I want answers sent out to the suitors tonight Maudie."

"What- what do you want them to say sir?" Maudie stammered, her whole body quivering.

"That we graciously accept their offer's."

"Including the Vikings?" the frighten servant asked

"Yes especially the Vikings." The king replied, his lip curling. Maudie trotted away, her ears still ringing with Merida's shrieks. Fergus watched the door of the kitchen close behind the maid, leaving the battleground of a dining hall completely silent. Nodding once in the acknowledgement that his kingly duties were underway Fergus made to leave the dining room. He got half way to the door before a loud crashing noise rang out behind him. Spinning around the king let out a grown. The dining table was toppled over on its side, spilling its contents everywhere. Food lay like dead soldiers, scattered in grate mounds allover the stone floor. "BOYS!" Fergus yelled as he saw the long rope that was attached to his ankle. "BOYS!" He bellowed again. Three floors up the triplets giggled in unison, their mischievous work roaring through the ancient halls like a grate black bear.

While all of this was going on Merida was busy getting her anger out on one of her post of her bed. "Who- do's- she -think- I am!" Merida spat. With each word she swung her broad sword hard up against the post, splintering the wood and leaving a long gash in the polished mahogany. "AHHHHH!" Merida screamed throwing the sword across the room, it bounced off the wall, leaving a sizable dent in the woodwork. A knock came at the door and Merida turned sharply at the intruding sound. The stranger tried to open the door but Merida had barricaded herself inside, slamming a chair two stools and a small table up against the hard wood door.

"Merida let me in." The muffled voice of her mother sounded as she tried and failed to open the blocked bedroom door. Merida just gave a loud huff and threw herself on her bed, her curls bouncing as she slammed her face into her pillow and gave a long drawn out scream. From the other side of the door Queen Eleanor could hear her daughter muffled shouts as she let loos her anger. "Maybe I better come back later." The Queen muttered to herself, now hearing Merida throwing books off her shelf. Back inside her room Merida was indeed tossing books from her shelf. Grabbing brightly collared bindings at random and chucking them fiercely across the room.

"WHY WONT YOU LISSEN!" Merida shrieked kicking the now empty bookshelf in frustration. The shelf wobbled once and something hard fell on Merida's head. Swearing Merida clutched the top of her head, a hot stinging pain rolling down her body from her cranium. "What the?" Merida hissed looking down to see what had fallen from the top of the teetering shelf and collided so painfully with her skull. A black book with a dusted faded cover looked back at her, decorated with the twisting image of a red dragon sown into the cloth cover. Frowning Merida bent down and picked up the ratty thing, turning the book to the side to read the title. One word was stitched into the black spine, Dragons. Merida's memory suddenly flashed back to four years ago, when her dad had given her this book when she started learning about how to defend the castle from attack. She was twelve years old then and was being instructed about dragon raids. Merida's mother had tolled her that if a dragon raid did happen that she was to go to the keep and not make a sound. Merida had found this class very boring; dragons very rarely attacked the DunBrock kingdom, sticking mostly to the northern villages. But her father had given her this book to give her more interest in the subject. Peering through the book now Merida remembered the fascination that she had for the terrifying creatures the book discussed. She had pored over the ink drawings, never caring to learn about the grate beasts, just enjoying the look of the creatures. Now that Merida thought about it she had wondered were this book had gone. Her mother must have placed it up on top of the bookshelf so that Merida would not get bad ideas. Heat boiled in her stomach again at the thought of her mother's stupid rules. Stomping over to her bed Merida jumped onto the messy sheets, throwing the book down beside her. Turning the fading pages a childhood terror rows up in her mind, looking with awe and excitement at the many different drawings of dragons. One page was dedicated entirely to the proper way to slay a Gronckle, describing the weaknesses and tricks to bring done the fire-breathing creature. "You would have to be out of your mind to fight that thing." Merida scoffed, turning the page to a beautiful drawing of Deadly Nadders. A light suddenly went off in Merida's head and she turned back to the page about fighting dragons. "I get to choose the challenge." Merida said slowly, her hair almost crackling with wicked glee. "Those boys need to go through a challenge to prove themselves to me, the one who passes it un scathed will then win my hand in marriage." An evil smile twisting around her delicate face Merida pulled the book up to her chest. "I would like to see them try." Merida whispered to herself.

Thinking quickly Merida pondered all the variables that would come if she really did go through with this challenge. _All the suitors were from the south_, Merida thought. _They have never even seen a dragon before, let alone slay one. The only suitor that would have a good idea of how to kill a dragon would be the Viking boy, but by the sounds of him he was not at all up for the challenge._ Eleanor's words bounce around in Merida's head as she thought over her plan, _useless, accident prone, completely not what he should be._ This did not sound like dragon killing qualities. Rapping her arms around the black book Merida closed her eyes and held her breath, hoping against hope that her plan would work. "Please, please, please." She whispered, her browse furrowing as she prayed, "I don't want to get married."

The plan was set. She would challenge the suitors to slay a dragon for her, sounding much like the fairy tails Merida had grown up with. The boys from the south would have no idea how to kill the fire-breathing thing, and would probably run away from it, having no experience with giant reptiles. The boy from the North would have some idea of how to kill the Dragon, but would not have any way of actually doing it, being less than everything. Also it would probably take five to six days to find a Dragon for the suitors to fight, so Merida would have more time to convince her mother that she did not wont to get married. _Yes_, Merida thought. _Everything might work out perfectly in the end._


	2. Chapter 2: The Village of Berk

Chapter 2

The Village of Berk

The Letters were sent out that night by carrier pigeons. Each small feathery thing had a red envelope tied to their leg, a different name scribbled on it in running black ink, McGuffin, Dingwall, Macintosh and Haddock. One pigeon broke off from the other three, shooting like a dart through the still night air. It was heading far north, about three days travel by boat, but by air, it was a mere four hours. Piping his little wings against his small feathery body, the pigeon gave a little peep as he lost sight of the dark green land beneath him, a chilly blue swallowing the lush friendly grass. On and on the pigeon flew. The Letter bounced against his feet as he tore through the air, slicing the silence like cloth with the small peeps that he shot out. Berk was only two hours away now.

Lights winked at the small bird in a friendly manner, twinkling at the tired pigeon like fallen stars as the bird soared down towards the sleeping Viking town. Looking around the pigeons eyes widened at the largest house in the town, smoke was pirouetting out of the dark chimney. Landing with a small thump on the Viking house windowsill the pigeon nocked on the thick lumpy glass pain with his small beak. A shifting could be herd from inside and a silhouette was cast against the window. The glass shook slightly and the window was opened. The pigeon peeped again as a hand reached out and grabbed the bird. Stoick the vast gave a chuckle as he brought the carrier pigeon inside, holding the small ball of feathers gently in his fist. "Gobber! I told you they would answer." Stoick boomed, laughing as he dumped the bird on the dining room table.

"They might have answered Stoick, but I don't think it's going to be the answer you want to hear." Gobber said sagely, lumbering over to Stoick from the fireplace and setting his tankard of mead on the table, next to the cooing pigeon. Stoick smirked at his friend's words and untied the red letter from the bird's leg. Ripping the letter open Stoick read the letter quickly, his gray eyes darting from side to side.

"So Stoick?" Gobber asked tentatively. Stoick did not answer, he was still immersed in the letter, but a small smile was twirling around his lips as he read on. Gobber reached down and picked up his tanker of mead again, intent on swallowing the last mouth full, but just as he lifted the mug to his lips Stoick let out a loud roar of laughter and slammed the letter down on the table. Gobber and the bird both jumped, the pigeon making a grate squawk and flapping up to perch on Gobber's helmet. Gobber on the other hand had let out a cry of surprise and slopped the beer all down his front.

"I knew it! I knew that they could not refuse!" Stoick bellowed slapping Gobber happily on the back, "Didn't I tell yeah Gobber didn't I?"

"Oh yes you sure did." Gobber said sadly looking down at the spilt beer, "You sure did tell me."

"I'm going to go tell Hiccup the good news!" said Stoick happily, "He'll be so excited."

"Oh yeah," Gobber grunted sarcastically, "He'll just be tickled pink." Stoick did not seemed to pick up on the blacksmiths sarcasm for he merely waved goodbye to the ale stained Gobber and left the house, in search of Hiccup. Gobber let out a sigh as Stoick left, "You know," the blacksmith said seriously to the cooing pigeon still perched on the left horn of his Viking helmet, "I think that this might all work it self out in the end." The pigeon cocked his head and made a loud peep. "Oh now watch your mouth." Gobber snapped back "You don't know that." The Pigeon peeped again. "I will admit you have a point there but try to be less sour about everything." The pigeon cooed and ruffled his feathers once, "Yes much better, and now, lets see about finding you a place to sleep." Gobber left after that, his newfound friend perched on his helmet, cooing in a content way.

Hiccup was sitting in the back room of the smithy, arms resting on his desk and head buried in the green fabric of his sleeves. This was Hiccup's thinking position, and Hiccup was thinking harder then he had ever done before, trying to figure out the potentially life ending situation. Tomorrow he had to go up against a fearsome fire breathing monstrous nightmare, and secretly he had a Night fury hiding in his back yard. One of the rarest and most prized dragons in the whole archipelago and he was keeping it as a pet_. What am I going to do?_ Hiccup thought, his brow crinkling as he leaned back in his chair. Maps and diagrams were scattered all over his desk, red circles dotting good hiding spots and charcoal exes marked fishing ponds. This was all Hiccup could come up with, running away. Breathing heavily Hiccup flung the treacherous map to the ground, eyes turning hard and cold for a second in a brief fit of panicked rage. "What am I going to do?" Hiccup spat, running his fingers through his choppy auburn hair. Jumping up from his desk chair Hiccup dashed over to his bookshelf to look for something to help him. Running his shaking fingers over the leather spines Hiccup faltered on one particular dusty book title. Pulling it out from its fellows Hiccup looked daggers down at the black cover, decorated with a red dragon sown into the fabric. "Stupid book!" Hiccup spat throwing the dragon book across the small candle lit room. "Why cant I just kill the damn dragon like everyone else!" Hiccup sobbed, slumping to the floor beside his small bookshelf. Running his fingers through his messy locks again Hiccup tried with all of his might to think of a way out of fighting the dragon tomorrow, that did not involve running away or breaking a leg. Suddenly a loud bang could be heard from outside of the small office. Hiccup jumped and crouched down on the splinter minefield that was his office floor.

"Hiccup!" Astrid's voice cascaded out from the small crack in the door of the stuffy office. "Hiccup you better answer, you have some explaining to do!" Astrid shouted again looking around the blacksmith for the cowering boy. Hiccup of course did not answer. He had more sense then to stab a sleeping dragon in the eye, and by the sound of Astrid's voice she was angrier and as ready for blood then a hungry Nadder. Taking a deep breath Hiccup crawled as quietly as possible to the slightly ajar door. Gasping in a final gulp of air Hiccup reached up to the mettle latch and slowly shut the door, praying to Oden that Astrid would not find him. The door shut with a slight snap and silence fell outside of the office. Hiccups hart was in his mouth as he listened to the silence that was falling like hammers on his eardrums. Then he heard Astrid's alarmingly close steps fade away. Letting out a growl Astrid stomped out, swearing under her breath. "Were is that stupid kid." She snarled, slamming the door to the smithy behind her. Hiccup let out a long slow breath and leaned against the door.

"Thank gods." Hiccup breathed running a hand down his face and shaking his head once. Two weeks ago Hiccup would of like nothing better then to have Astrid chasing him around like the black death, but now, when she was ready to rip him limb from limb to find out how he was doing so well in dragon training, Hiccup would rather be treated like nothing more then a pesky shadow by her again. "Like she would believe me if I did tell her." Hiccup scoffed, "Hay Astrid the reason why I'm beating you in Dragon training is because I actually have a pet Dragon named Toothless. Yeah he's a Night Fury, you know, the one that's the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, but also likes belly scratches and Atlantic cod. I really hope you don't mind, and I'm glad that you under stand that I trained a drag-" But Hiccups rant was cut off when the door of his office was opened behind him and Hiccup, who was still leaning up against the door, fell backwards and landed with a sharp intake of breath wright underneath his fathers curious gaze.

"Hiccup?" Stoick began looking down at his son, sprawled at his feet. Hiccup got up as quickly as he possibly could and stood awkwardly in front of his dad, utter surprise and shock splattered all over his freckled face.

"Oh um hi dad, hi, I was just . . . flooring, um w-what are you doing hear?" Hiccups eyes shifted from his father's confused face to a small red letter gripped in the hooligans chiefs fist. "What's that?" Hiccup asked, pointing down at the scarlet letter.

"This as a matter of fact is why I'm hear."

"Oh . . . really, um, care to elaborate?" The awkward moment that was scratching like sand paper ended as Stoick smiled down at Hiccup and gestured for him to go inside the office. Hiccup walked slowly over to his desk again, pulling the small chair over to him. The chair legs grunted and moaned as they were dragged over the uneven wood flooring, as if in some kind of warring to Hiccup to run now while he still had the chance. The small Viking boy looked up at his dad with curiosity, slowly rubbing his bruised arm from the unexpected fall.

"Hiccup," Stoick sighed, "I'm really sorry to tell you this but I have some bad news." Hiccups expression twisted slightly.

"What?" He asked slowly.

"Unfortunately you can't fight the dragon tomorrow, now I know this-"

"Really!" Hiccup interrupted, an enormous weight lifted from his shoulders, "This is grate I mean this is," But then Hiccup realized what he was saying, "Uh I mean, Damn, really?" Hiccup corrected, filling the small sentence with as much sadness and disappointment he could muster. "Oh dad that's awful, I was really looking forward to um, doing that stabby stuff." Stoick was never good at seeing a lie with his friends and family, having gotten so good at spotting a subtle lie that he was quite terrible at seeing a big one.

"Yes I know, it is rather poor timing, but there is a good reason for why you have to miss the dragon fight tomorrow."

"Is it because you don't want to send your sixteen year old son into a cage with a Monstrous Nightmare?" Hiccup asked hopefully.

"What? No." Stoick laughed, waving a hand at Hiccups ridiculous statement, "This is a good reason." Rolling his eyes Hiccup crossed his arms and waited for his father to speak, biting his tongue so he did not retort in a very sarcastic manner. "Hiccup your going to be part of a very old and important tradition amongst the people of Berk." Stoick said slowly, building up the surprise that he was about to dump on his son.

"Drinking?" Said Hiccup coldly.

"What no, this one is much more social and important." Stoick retorted, a bit taken it back by his son's apparent disgust.

"Well what is it then?" Hiccup asked with a bight of impatiens.

"You're going to compete for the princess Merida's hand in marriage." Stoick said proudly. Hiccup just sat dumb struck for a second, his mouth dropped and his eyes wide.

"Um, what?" Hiccup said slowly, his arms falling limply to his sides.

"The Scottish lands lay three days south of hear, their daughter Merida is going to be married off to the eldest son of one of the lords and chiefs of the surrounding lands, and I having only one son." Hear Stoick paused, just briefly, but Hiccup noticed. The boy's cheeks burned with anger but he did not say anything, and Stoick continued. "So I have nominated you to compete in the games. We set sail tomorrow at dawn." Once again Hiccup just stared at his dad, mind reeling. Processing the information that was just thrown at him was more difficult then any dragon fighting class Hiccup had ever experienced. The words that his father had just casually mentioned to him shot through the trembling boy's brain, his mouth still dropped in disbelief.

"You want me, to fight for a girls hand in marriage?" Hiccup asked slowly, his face bleached with shock. "I have no idea who this girl is, were she is and what she's like, and were leaving tomorrow." Stoick nodded with a small smile, thankful that his son understood the situation. "WHAT?" Hiccup gasped, louder then he had expected. "I can't just go marry some girl I don't even know! I have a life hear, a home, Astir-" Hiccup stopped himself from mentioning Astrid's name, not wanting to bring up a touchy subject with his dad, who was less then brilliant at dealing with Hiccups problems.

"Hiccup, you need to understand, you have to marry the Scottish girl, if you marry her then we will have enough men to defeat the dragons, we can have our lives back son." Hiccups innards curled at those words. Dragons. Like always this was about dragons. Tiny fists clenched at the unfairness of the situation.

"You want me to marry this girl so we can use their army?" Hiccup grumbled, his bangs falling over his darkened eyes as he looked up at his father. "Well I guess that makes sense." Hiccup spat, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.

"Good I'm glad you understand son." Stoick sighed placing a comforting hand on Hiccups shoulder and making the boys back bend from the wait.

"But I wasn't-!" Hiccup started but once again his dad paid no heed.

"You'll need this." Stoick said cheerily, dropping a large leather sack into his son's arms.

"What?" Hiccup grimmest, holding the sack a little ways away from his body, not wanting to make to much contact with it.

"Oh and this." Stoick added dropping a small short sword onto the sack. Hiccups hole body bent forward as the sword was tossed nonchalantly onto his shaking arms. "Normally the challenges involve fighting, and what better way then by sword."

"Wait what challenges?" Hiccup stammered as his father pushed him out the door of his office.

"Well how else do you win a princesses hart then by fighting for it?" Stoick responded as he shepherded his reluctant son towards the door of the smithy.

"I thought dinner and a good conversation would be nice too?" Hiccup retorted stiffly, cradling the sword awkwardly in the leather bag.

"Nah, were Vikings, we don't really do talking." Stoick laughed and with that pushed his son out the door. "Now go home and pack, I need to inform the other Vikings about are new plans."  
"But dad-" Hiccup started; however Stoick was no longer listening. His back was turned and he was running in the other direction, up towards the dining hall. Hiccups shoulder's dropped as he looked down at the short sword. "How am I going to explain this to Toothless." Hiccup moaned.

Hiccup did not bother with the packing, not just yet. Throwing the bag and the sword angrily on the ground near his desk Hiccup ran over to his small wooden bed. Throwing himself down on the uneven wood paneled floors, Hiccup reached a hand out into the darkness that inhabited the space beneath his bed. A clink of mettle sounded and Hiccups hands closed around something cold and leathery. With a small grown Hiccup pulled out a black artificial tail fin, with copper gears lining the side of the hand made creation. Nodding once Hiccup heaved the black tail fin up and ran out of his room, leaving his sword resting forgotten next to his Viking helmet.

Panting Hiccup ran from his house, eyes fixed on the dark tree line of the wiled shrubbery outside of his village. Jumping over logs and duking under branches Hiccup bolted to the clearing that Toothless was sleeping in. Night was at its thickest, swallowing all thought of calm that Hiccup normally felt running through these woods. Long black shadows stretched out like pillars, casting lines upon the small boys body. Black squirrels scurried up and down the ruff branches of the pine trees, hissing and chattering at Hiccup as he sped through the darkness. The Viking felt like he was intruding on something sacred and alien to him as he clambered over a large bolder, pulling the leather tail up to rest next to him. Hiccup cast a worried look around the still darkness. Then taking a deep breath Hiccup slid down the rock, keeping a firm grip on the artificial tail. He went speeding down the deep scar in the earth that Toothless had made when he crashed into the ground the night Hiccup had shot him out of the sky. Tiny pebbles and clumps of dirt when cascading down beside the boy as he slid toward the clearing were he new Toothless was sleeping. Stumbling up from the long slide he had just done Hiccup brushed himself off quickly and picked a dry leaf out of his auburn hair. Hiccup then bolted forward towards the clearing.

Reaching a large pile of rocks Hiccup expertly maneuvered his way through the stone maze having done it too many times to count. But the boy then winced as he nocked his head against a dead branch that had somehow managed to wedge itself between two rocks. Muttering insults under his breath Hiccup finally stumbled to the end of the maze and blinked in the sudden light. The Moon was smiling down at the dirt-covered boy, looking a like a tow nail in the dark velvet sky. Hiccup gazed shakily around the small clearing and spotted a large smudge of black, looking like an ink stain in an otherwise green surrounding. Smiling Hiccup jumped down from the small cliff he was positioned on and walked quickly up to the sleeping dragon. "Toothless!" Hiccup called hugging the tail fin to his chest. The black dragon snorted once and opened his eyes wearily. "Yeah body I now it's late but this is important." The dragon's eyes narrowed slightly and gave Hiccup a quizzical look.

Hiccup explained the recent situation he had just bin dumped in by his dad, expressing his worry and confusion about the current calamity in his other wise simple life. Toothless listened closely, his ears dropping and his pupils dilating. Sadness was something that dragons very rarely show, as expression is rather limited in there faces, but now, the normally bouncing Night Fury looked just plain gloomy. Hiccup finished his story with a small smile, and rubbed his hand over the dragon's warm scaly head. "I just don't understand bud, nothing seems to make sense anymore." Toothless gave a comforting gargle and rubbed his nose into the small boys chest. "But- I have to try Toothless, I need to do this so I can finally do something useful, for my tribe, for my dad- . . . this could be the thing that I was meant to do, marry this girl." Toothless gave the sad boy a lick, soaking his hair in dragon saliva. Hiccup gave a small laugh that was mixed with a gasp of disgust. "Toothless, yuck, was that really necessary?" Hiccup croaked, wiping the drool from his eyes. Toothless gave a gummy smile then spotted the black prosthetic tail on the ground behind the boy. Cocking his head Toothless paste over to the tail and gave it a quizzical sniff. Hiccup looked over to see were Toothless was going and spotted the forgotten prosthetic too. "Oh uh, yeah that." Hiccup said sadly walking over and picking up the tail fin. Toothless looked questioningly at Hiccup, not liking the smell that was drifting off the dejected boy. "Toothless, if I do win the challenges and Princess Merida marries me, then . . ." Hiccup looked miserably down at the mossy ground and squeezed the tail fin hard. "Toothless, I wont come back from Scotland." The dragon's eyes widened and his pupils dilated into slits. Giving a snarl of disapproval Toothless rubbed his nose into the boy's chest again, in some kind of signal for _stay._ Hiccups head drooped and he released his hold on the black tail fin, letting it fall to the ground. He hugged the thick neck of his dragon, eyes pressed shut. Toothless gave a coo of sadness twirling once around his small rider, his hot breath ruffling the boys hair. Hiccup, feeling rather sick, sat down beside Toothless and the Night Fury lay down beside him, curling his tail protectively around Hiccups small body. Boy and dragon lay together for some time, Toothless keeping his human worm with his fire filled chest. Both of their eyes were closed, but each clung to consciousness, as they wanted to remember there last potential night together.

But then a bird started to sing. Hiccup cracked his eyes open to see the stars that were once shining like lanterns in the ebony sky had now started fading away. It was then that the boy realized that they were leaving at dawn. Groaning Hiccup got up, unwinding himself from Toothless's long black tail. Picking up the prosthetic fin again, Hiccup walked solemnly over to the drowsy dragons tail and unhitched the brown leather prosthetic and replaced it with the black one. Toothless started shifting, feeling small nimble hands running up his back, untying the metal link that allowed Hiccup to control the tail fin. Eyes widening in sudden horror Toothless bolted upright, nocking Hiccup over, just as he was about to unhitch the saddle that was hugging Toothlesses chest. Hiccup hit the dirt with a dull thump, choppy auburn locks cascading into his surprised green eyes. "Toothless." The boy said sadly as the black dragon backed away from the sprawled teen. "Toothless I got to get that saddle off you, you don't need it any more." Hiccup said forlornly. Toothless shook his head sharply, his pupil's slits again. Hiccup got up slowly, hands wrapped around his bruised torso. "Toothless if I don't come back then you can't fly, and if you cant fly then your dead!" Hiccup choked. "So- so I made you that." The small Viking moaned, pointing dejectedly at the black fin now strapped around the thrashing tail of the Night fury. Toothless eyed it hatefully, giving it a good thwack on the ground. "Hay stop it! That took me a hole week to make!" Hiccup shouted, running over to the dragon. "See look you can move it on your own." Hiccup said shakily, pulling at the tail fin so the copper gears rotated. Yellow eyes widening Toothless shifted the position of his tail fin, and both real and fake responded. "Yeah, there you see, now you can fly on your own, you don't need me any more bud." Toothless gave a sharp hiss as Hiccup made to unhitch the saddle again. Backing further away from his rider, the snarling Night fury defended his hand made saddle with his life. Hiccup withdrew his hand from Toothless and gave the dragon a small smile. "Thanks bud." Hiccup whispered.

Dawn was fast on his heals as Hiccup ran back towards the Viking village. After showing Toothless how to use the fin the ebony dragon had blasted off from the clearing, leaving Hiccup all alone again. Fighting back a tear Hiccup had left. Now he was running as fast as he could back to the disapproving looks and glairs of his fellow humans.

Bolting through the back door of his solid house Hiccup scrambled up the wooden stairs of the dining room. Crossing the small landing at brake neck speed Hiccup tossed himself into his room and slammed the door behind him. Breathing heavily Hiccup smiled as he turned from the heavy wood of his bedroom door only to have the smile peeled off his face by the sight of Gobber standing flabbergast in the corner of his room. "Ah Gobber- what the! What are you doing hear?" Hiccup shouted, jumping at the sight of his teacher.

"I was sent to get you." Gobber said slowly walking over from his corner to look closely down at Hiccup. "Where have you been?" Gobber asked suspiciously, looking from Hiccup's pail sweaty face, to his red eyes, to the black circles now blossoming under his eyelids. "You look awful."

"Thank you for the reassurance Gobber." Hiccup said sarcastically, duking under the blacksmiths arm and diving over to the sack that was lying forgotten on the floor. Picking it up Hiccup ran over to his chest of clothes and started shoving shirts into the leather sack.

"You haven't even packed yet?" Gobber croaked.

"No." Hiccup said dryly, now tossing brown and black pants into the bag.

"What have you been doing instead boy?" Gobber gasped, his mouth dropped with confusion.

"Uh, sleeping." Hiccup lied, grabbing two pairs of boots and a belt.

"Oh and I suppose you just landed in a pile of leaves in you dreams then." Gobber sneered; pointing out the dead leaves still stuck to the back of Hiccups head. Hiccup brushed at the leaves hurriedly and started shoving the boots and the belt into the bag. "Oh no, your not hiding that from me." Gobber snapped, stomping over to look Hiccup in the blood shot eyes. Hiccup looked away and tried to run over to his desk but was stopped by Gobber's meaty arm. "Hiccup . . . did you get any sleep last night?" The blacksmith asked with slight concern, narrowing his eyes at Hiccup's vacant expression. Hiccup shrunk under the piercing look of his teacher, and bit his lip.

"Uh yeah, a bit." Hiccup stammered, looking through his choppy bangs at Gobber. The blacksmith's expression grew stern. Crossing his arms Gobber gave Hiccup a fatherly look. "I'm not your dad Hiccup, you can't lie to me, so you better fess up now or I'll drag this out for as long as you can bear to stand." Hiccup frowned and turned away from Gobber, walking over to his desk and started rummaging around in the drawers. "Oh so its going to be like that eh?" Gobber sneered, watching the back of Hiccup's head closely.

"Yep, like that." Hiccup answered, pulling out his leather bound sketchbook and five or six charcoal pencils.

"Alright Hiccup, but you know this, you brought this on your self, and no amount of cheek will get you out of it."

"Oh really" Hiccup muttered placing his sketchbook into a satchel with the Berk crest branded on the side.

"Yes really, at the end of this trip I'm gonna know what you were doing out in those woods." Gobber said confidently. Hiccup looked up at the smiling blacksmith, shocked that the man had known where he was.

"Oh really Hiccup I'm not stupid, your tracking mud in all over the floors." Hiccup look down sharply and groaned at the muddy footprints scattered all over his bedroom. Running a hand over his face Hiccup tried to ignore the laughter now coming from the corner.

"Gobber what took you?" Stoick voice boomed out over the docks as he spotted the blond blacksmith walking steadily over towards him. A small figure then came into view, with a messy crop of auburn hair shining like and acorn in the rising sun of the cold morning. Hiccup was sinking under the wait of the sack that was resting over his aching shoulder, but the sword that was bouncing on his hip and the helmet on his head did not help the wait ether. Only his satchel witch had his sketchbook and a scale from Toothless remained light as a feather on his small, lanky frame. Gobber looked down at the struggling teen and grabbed the leather bag from Hiccup, tossing it over his own muscled back instead. Hiccup let out a cry of protest but let the moment of weakness go. Gobber smiled at Hiccup as he and the boy walked up to the chief. "So wear were you?" Stoick asked again looking from Hiccups vacant face to Gobber's smiling one.

"Oh you know Stoick, some last minute packing, goodbyes, that sort of thing." Gobber said nonchalantly, giving the chief a convincing smile. Stoick glanced down at Hiccup again who as staring steely eyed at the ground. Dirt caked his face in places and his green tunic was damp with dew, pieces of dead leaves and twigs were lodged in his son's knotted hair and the normally bright green eyes were blood shot, with dark circles looping around his lower eye lid. "He uh, fell down a hill." Gobber said awkwardly noticing the look that Stoick was giving Hiccup. The blacksmith gave his apprentice a sharp nudge to back up his story. Hiccup looked dazedly up at his dad and gave him a quick shrug, then walked over to sit down on a small wooden crate. Stoick and Gobber exchanged looks and Gobber shook his head once, he didn't know what was going on ether.

Hiccup was gazing miserably down at his shoes when some foots steps brought him out of his small coma. Hiccup looked up to see a pair of fur boots standing in front of him, the left one cocked so the person's body wait was resting on a large battle-axe. "Astrid!" Hiccup choked looking up at the snarling girls face. Hiccup stood up quickly so he was on the same level as the blond. Astrid stared piercingly at Hiccup, her blue eyes cutting him like glass as she glared at him. Then the ferocity and hate slowly leaked out of her watery blue eyes and the storm clouds lessened in her hart. Hiccup swore that she had never looked prettier.

"I still think there's something off about you." Astrid said slowly, "But- that doesn't mean that I wont miss hitting you." She smiled and punched Hiccup hard on the shoulder. "Try not to die out there, I wouldn't want to miss it."

"I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." Hiccup chuckled, smiling at the pain that was prickling through his shoulder. Astrid hesitated then gave Hiccup a quick hug, squeezing him a bit to tight. Hiccups eyes widened at the gesture and awkwardly wrapped his small arms around the girl. But then the two broke apart, standing silently together for three brief seconds. The twins and Fishlegs then came over and said goodbye to Hiccup as well. The moment was short but Hiccup appreciated it very much. The only one that was missing was Snotlout. Hiccup asked Astrid were his cousin was but she merely rolled her eyes.  
"You're not going to like the answer." She said coldly. Hiccups browse furrowed but his confusion was soon ended, unfortunately.

"Hay Hiccup! Guess who's coming to watch you get your butt kicked by a couple of lords sons." Hiccup groaned at the sound of Snotlout's cocky voice. Turning Hiccup was tackled by his over intoxicating cousin. Coughing the much smaller Viking picked himself off the hard ground of the deck and looked daggers at Snotlout.

"Why are you coming?" Hiccup choked, his arm, once again rapped arrowed his bruised chest.

"Uh I'm your cousin, duh. My dads like second in control, if he's going why shouldn't I?" Snotlout answered, talking to Hiccup like he was four.

"I can think of several reasons." Hiccup retorted coldly. Snotlout made to answer but his dad then shouted at him to come over and help with the luggage. Giving Hiccup a burning glair Snotlout ran over to assist his father.

The rest of the teens then departed after that, waving goodbye to Hiccup one more time before walking back up to the village. Hiccup watched the disappearing glow of Astrid's hair in the rising sun, miserable that he was leaving now. Sitting back down on the small crate Hiccup turned over all the events that had just happened in his head. _I just got hugged by Astrid_ _Hofferson. _Hiccup thought happily, _that, I was not expecting today_. Hiccup was suddenly cast in shadow as Gobber's huge form loomed over him "Wright lad were ready to board." He said in a falsely cheery voice. Phil, Gobber's pesky pet sheep sat next to him, giving Hiccup a board look.

"Gobber you cant take your sheep." Hiccup said drowsily looking up at his teacher with a tired sort of annoyance.

"What why not?" Gobber asked, his voice rising in protest.

"Gobber . . . some - someone's going to eat him." Hiccup said delicately, but really not caring two figs about that stupid sheep. Gobber looked down at Phil then back to Hiccup, eyes wide. "Gobber what do you expect will happen if you bring a walking lamb roast onto a ship with rationed food. There Vikings Gobber, they don't like being hungry."

"Ah, well I guess your wright lad." Gobber sighed, motioning for Phil to go back to the house. Phil left with a murderess glare at Hiccup. Hiccup looked back at the sheep in confusion, never trusting that fluff ball. "But if I cant have that Phil." Gobber piped up whistling once and looking expectantly at the sky. A carrier pigeon fluttered down from the tree beside the docks and landed on Gobber's helmet. "Then I can have this Phil!" Gobber said proudly, who was looking over joyed at the sight of the cooing pigeon.

"What? Gobber what's with the pigeon?" Hiccup asked tentatively looking with apprehension at the small gray bird perched jointly on the blacksmith's helmet.

"Its Phil." Gobber said simply, smiling at the confusion on his apprentices face.

"Do you name all of your pets Phil?" Hiccup asked smugly.

"Don't insult the name Phil, it's a good strong name, now come on, were boarding the ships."

Sighing Hiccup slid off his crate and followed the blacksmith to one of the two boats that were tied to the dock. A pair of yellow eyes watched him board the ship and sail away, disappearing into the hart of the horizon just as the sun fully rows into the sky. Toothless was perched in a tall spruce tree not ten yards away, his noes quivering with the scent of his small friend. No dragon will ever abandon their treasure, and Hiccup was as big a trove as any gold or diamond. Giving a snort Toothless took off into the sky, flying above the clouds to avoid being spotted by enemies. Yellow eyes bounced from ship to ship tell the dragon saw the patch of auburn sparkling like bronze in the early morning sun. Toothless was going to Scotland with Hiccup, because wright now, both needed each other more then ever.


	3. Chapter 3: Hiccup the Useless

Chapter 3

Hiccup the useless

Merida was in her own private hell, and her mother was over glad to put her there. The princess was sitting in the small hot classroom with her head resting on three of the boring books that she was expected to memorize. Sown into the gold covers was the hated word _etiquette_. A fly was buzzing somewhere near the small window, sunlight pursing there the stuffy curtains was giving Merida a sunburn on the back of her neck.

The Queen was half way through explaining the long and tedious history of the Dingwall clan, describing the young Dingwall to her less then enthusiastic daughter. "He dan't sound to bright." Merida scoffed after her mother had finished lecturing her about the many things the young lord _said_ he had done.

"Now Merida a princess do's not speak that way about her suitors, or about anyone as a madder of fact."

"You weren't speaking to kindly about the Viking boy last night." Merida retorted, raising her head a bit from her arms. The Queen faltered, and bit her lip, remembering the scoring words that she had used to describe the Viking tribe.

"Yes I may have spoken a bit out of turn." Eleanor started but Merida cut her mother off.

"By ma memory, you called them barbaric pigs?" Eleanor's lips pursed but she pressed on with her lesson.

"So now that you know a little about young Dingwall why don't we move on to the next suitor?" Eleanor said quickly, ignoring the look of boredom her daughter was giving her. The Queen glanced down at her list to see who was next and gave out a groan at the name scrawled there. Hiccup Haddock. Sighing, Eleanor moved over to the board and wrought the name down under Dingwall. Merida's head popped up from her arms at the name.

"Who's that?" Merida asked, snickering slightly at the very odd name. "Hiccup? I mean there are funny names and then there's just . . . that."

"Vikings believe that bad names will frighten off gnomes and trolls, like there charming behavior would not do that." Eleanor mumbled the last part but Merida heard it. She gave a small smirk and sat up, actual interest playing across her face now as she waited to see what her mother was going to say about a group of people she so obviously did not like. "Haddock is the only son of Stoic the vast, chief of the Hairy hooligan tribe. He is hope and heir. Nothing else is known about him."

"What that's it?" Merida asked, feeling a bit disappointed.

"Yes, there's nothing written about him anywhere. No legends or stories told about him, not even in the history books. He's just done nothing worth talking about."

"You met him didn't you?" Merida asked, more focused on her lesson than she had bin all morning.

"No your father did, when he visited the Vikings two years ago."

"And?" Merida pressed. Eleanor looked at her daughter with slight confusion, having never seen her act like this about any topic, except war fair and fairy tales.

"When Fergus returned he had nothing to say about the boy except, _I wonder how that happened_."

Merida's eyebrows furrowed.

"What is that suppose to mean?"

"It means Merida, that something went wrong with that boy a long time ago and all the training and chastising that Stoick throes at him will not reverse what fait has chosen."

Eleanor went back to telling Merida about the other suitors, explaining and demonstrating why they would be better choices for her marriage. Merida however just slummed in her chair and chewed her tongue. _This is so bloody stupid_. The red head thought. _I'll eat Angus if any of these boys have done half the things the legends say they have, at least the Hiccup lad is honest about how useless he is._ The fly behind Merida was hitting itself against the stain glass of her classroom, seeing the outside but not being able to reach it was driving the small bug mad.

Merida's lesson droned on and on into the day. Her mother was relentless with her teachings. By the time that her studies were finally over the sun had sunk into the horizon and a red tinge was bleeding from the sinking daylight. The ships would be here soon.

"Now I think that is enough fun for the day." Eleanor said happily turning from the chalkboard and looking over at her daughter. Merida's head was drooping from her hand and her eyes were closed. "Merida dear." Red curls bounced as the princesses head popped up.

"Strive for perfection, and don't hit your brothers in front of the lords." Merida babbled, not remembering the last thing her Queen said. Eleanor's eyes narrowed but she let the lapse in concentration pass.

"Merida dear, you're free to go." Lights exploded in Merida's eyes as she jumped up from her seat.

"Oh thank you mum!" The girl yelled as she dashed towards the classroom door.

"Merida!" Eleanor snapped as her daughter scrambled at the door. The princess gave a small hiss as she turned slowly from the brake for freedom and looked apprehensively at her Mother. "As you know the Lords sons . . . and the Viking, will be here some time in the evening, so, I will expect you back, clean, happy and own time." Merida bit back a less then lady like retort and gave a small nod, her eyes narrowing at the poisonous obedience. The Queen smiled and then gestured for her daughter to leave.

The door was almost wrenched from its hinges as the princess barreled out of the toxic classroom. She did not go directly to the stables, instead stopping off at her room to rip the pink cotton dress off over her head and pull a brown riding skirt on instead. "Uh that's better." She breathed as the ruff cloth of the dress tickled her rib cage. Then with much glee she kicked the small tight brown flats off her feet and pulled on a pair of brown boots. The last thing the girl did before she bolted was pull her bushy red hair back, and tie it into a loose braid. Curls hung like belles around her pink face giving her a slightly disheveled look. But looks did not matter now, nothing did, it was time to go to that one place were even her mothers rules could not find her.

The sun was kissing the horizon as she rowed across the field to the forest. Spiting out a loos curl from her mouth Merida halted her horse at the side of the cliffs out looking the sea. There was the outline of something dark at the place were the water bled into the sky. "Bloody hell." Merida swore. A blot of black was painted against the red of the sky. Ships were on their way. Nerve pricked up Merida's neck as her future slowly crept closer. But then a light went off in her head. "This is facing the north." She mumbled, squinting at the ship. "Why would a ship be coming-" But then she remembered the Vikings. Merida's brow furrowed, partly out of anger and partly out of curiosity. "I wonder what there ships look like." The smudge was rapidly turning into a silhouette, detail forming and colours blooming. By the vague outline it looked very much like the Scottish ships. A Sturdy tub like vessel, with a mast rising out of the middle and rowers on ether side, twelve or fourteen in total. The ships were quite a bit larger however, baring a cabin and a crow's nest. But all in all, the ship was exactly the same. The only big difference was the flag battering above the men's heads. It depicted a dragon, stabbed through the hart. Merida shook herself out of the sleep state she had drifted into. If she could see the detail in the flag then the ship was a mere half an hour away, time was slipping away from her like water, she needed to use her last half and hour to her fullest.

Startling in her saddle Merida pulled on Anguses rains, directing the horse's head to the woods behind them. "Come on Angus, we got thirty minutes left to have fun, and this fun's gatta last the rest of are lives!" She shrieked with determined joy as the horse blasted from the cliff, and ran to the tree line.

The Ship sailed closer and closer, snaking its way up to the green land.

Red hair was a blur as the girl and the horse ran. Black almost seemed to bleed into the red curls as the rider and the mount became one in there hurry. They needed to run so fast that time would stand still, they had to have more then thirty minutes. But funnily enough, time was on their side today, and it stretched on for miles, giving the girl pity, and another twenty minutes. As Merida rode, she pretended that she had lived her whole life in these woods. She had bin lost as a baby because the infant girl had ran away from home the first day she was born. She had grabbed her father's sword and fought her way out of the castle, steeling a pony that had bin unloved and riding away into the woods. She and the horse then lived with the eagles that roamed the skies, eating worms and smaller birds and living in grass huts along the mountainside. The brave Merida of course was not afraid of heights, and in fact chaste heights away with the sword of her father, which she had kept. She then grew into a strong smart woman of sixteen, not ruled by anyone except herself. Merida would be Queen of the mountains, ruling her eagle army and killing bandits that prayed on the people weaker then them. She would live so long with the eagles that brave Merida would grow wings, and fly. Her horse would grow wings to of course and together they would fly and fly tell they flue so high, they would see behind the stars, and live forever in their glowing kingdom of light. Merida smiled to herself as she fantasized about living behind stars and was in fact so deep in her own imagining she did not see the clearing spiraling up towards her. Angus did see it though, he saw the stones that were standing there, in perfect circle, and he new what they meant. Ancient anxiety blasted through the horse's body as the girl and the stallion shot out of the woods and into the clearing. Dirt was soddenly flung in all directions as Angus stopped his rapid pace, skidding through the mud and flinging his rider form his back.

Merida hit the ground with a crunch, right in the middle of the circle of stones. "Angus!" She cried, pushing the hair out of her face and looking miserably at the whinnying horse. But as Merida looked up she also saw the stones, and wonder blocked out pain. Rising slowly Merida gazed around the clearing at the unnatural concoction of land. _Stone's don't grow this way._ She thought, bringing a finger to her lip and bighting on a nail. Angus was pacing around the circle of rocks anxiously, not daring to cross the line of old magic that was planted here. Merida cocked her head at the odd behavior of her horse and was about to scold him for being a superstitious wee baby when a familiar sound came across her ears. A singsong like cooing was coming from behind her, child like, yet ancient as the moon. Merida turned to see a blue light dancing and waving at her from beside a moss covered rock. "A will of the wisp." Merida whispered. A smile spreading like honey over her pail features. "You were real, I didn't pretend you."

Merida grabbed her skirts and ran towards the blue light. "You can fix everything, ma fait, ma mother you can-" But as she dashed at the glowing fairy it sputtered and vanished. Merida was taken a back for a minute but then remembered the strange blue lights she had followed as a child, lost in the woods one afternoon. The lights would vanish, but appear again just a little ways ahead of you. You just had to find them, and keep finding them. Merida looked up expectantly and the wisp was there, twirling next to a small stream, not ten paces in front of her. The red head ran after the small sprites, not questioning the lights in the slightest. Fait was at work here, and if you did not seize it when you had the chance, then, like the wisps, your future would sputter and vanish.

* * *

Authors notes: Thank you all so much with your reviews and comments. I love reading them and they are the best part of my day. I just want to answer some questions and give you a heads up about things in my story.  
1. I have already got the entire plot worked out and all the chapters blocked out. They will be coming to you regularly because I will not have to think out the story before I write the chapters, so this story will eventually be completed. Don't worry; I wont leave the characters or you.

2. Jack and Rapunzel regrettably wont be making and appearance but I do try to tie them in. However once I finish this story I am going to write a Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons fanfic. But if you can't wait for that I have done a short one shot about the four. You can find it under 'Big four: Enemy count'.

3. Every single enemy from the movies will be in this. Red Death, Mordu, everyone! (No Riders of Berk) I have added two villains of my own. One of them is the Dragon queen. A psychopathic witch who has it in for Hiccup because he has mastered the ability of training Dragons. Something that she believes only belongs to her. She is the main villain of the story and I have tried to make her has funny and disgustingly evil as possible.

4. I am sorry about the spelling mistakes. They are horrible I know but I do my best. I have a Learning disability and it makes it very hard to spell, but I go over all my writing three or four times and I try to fix it best I can.

5. This fic is going to be LONG. As I have told you I have blocked out all the chapters and if they all are as lengthy as the chapters I have already written then this story will be about 100,000 words long. Heads up for that, lots of reading coming your way! Also there will be three stories to follow this one. They all deal with Merida and Hiccup's relationship and with exploring the two as people. The names are as follows:

- The discovery of Matches

- Merida wares pink

- Are adventure at sea (Includes Camicazi)

6. Finally I am giving something for you to look foreword to. The final chapter of this story is an epilog that takes place 14 years after the story. It shows Hiccup and Merida as adults, and parents.

I will update soon, and try to give you a chapter every week. Keep up the comments I read every single one of them about 12 times. Next chapter will be all about Hiccup and called 'Merida the Brave' however the next one is called 'An uncomfortable first encounter' Merida and Hiccups first conversation together, and it dos not start well. See you next time, Happy Christmas.

L.S


	4. Chapter 4: Merida the Brave

Chapter 4

Merida the brave

Half an hour away, the Vikings ship crashed against the waves, its wooden sides being buffeted as they made good speed towards the shores. Green hills were covered in green trees, and green apples hung from green leaves. Even the rocks were green, moss coated over every single surface it could find. The entire island seemed to glisten with dew and rainwater. From Hiccups point of view the whole thing looked like a giant sponge, sucking in moisture and choking the rocks with it. Hiccup had always liked the colour green, wearing a green tunic wright now but this was just intoxicating. It was almost eye watering with how pure it was, there wasn't a spot of brown or a blemish of gray for miles. Everything was just plain green.

Hiccup was leaning against the side of the cabin, out of the way and the sight of the other Vikings. He had found a rather secluded place on the ship, at the front of the boat and was now thoroughly hating the last painful half an hour of the long three day sea adventure. Glaring at the giant sponge Hiccup slowly slid down the wall of the cabin, now looking through his bangs at his possible future home. _You don't have to try._ Hiccup debated with himself. _I mean if you are so against the idea of staying hear, away from Astrid, away from Gobber, away from Toothless, then just don't try you stupid boy, just throw the games, its not like you would win anyway, may I remind you that you can barely lift a sword, let alone use it. _ Hiccup frowned, pulling his legs up to his chest and crossing his arms on top of them, resting his chin on his skinny wrists. _Just throw the games and go home. _However when Hiccup thought that last word it felt stale in his mind. He really did not like life on Berk, no matter how much he pretended to. The people were tuff and tasteless, and the climate was two degrees south of freezing to death. This island of green was Valhalla compared to that place. However as soon as Hiccup thought this he immediately missed the crunch of rock and dragon bone that was Berk. The hellish island was familiar to him, and this place was like moving species, nothing about Scotland seemed like home. _ Maybe I don't belong in ether places. Maybe I should just live in the sky with Toothless, inventing some sort of hot air balloon house and catching birds like fish for food. _Hiccup smiled at this thought, but the smile was slowly pulled off his face as he remembered his dragon. Toothless was all by himself at Berk, surrounded by people who wanted to kill him, and Hiccup was all by himself out hear, surrounded by people who wished they could kill him. Hiccup dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a shiny black dragon scale, he rubbed it slowly between his thumb and finger, feeling the cool sleekness between his finger pads. Sorrow and homesickness pooled up inside the boy as his copper head dipped into his arms. Hiccup probably would of started crying if a less then welcomed some one poked his smirking face from around the corner.

Snotlout observed his smaller cousins dejected figure beneath him, a wicked smile twisting his features and not helping his looks in the slightest. Snotlout slowly creped closer to Hiccup, muffling his foot fall and gathering his breath, until. "HAY HICCUP!" Snotlout shouted, inches away from his cosines ear. Hiccup jumped out of his skin as he fell sideways, losing his grip on Toothless's scale.

"Snotlout what the hell?" Hiccup gasped, his ear still ringing from the shout.

"Oh well I thought you may be asleep so I decided to wake you up, your welcome by the way."

"Gods I think you broke my ear drum." Hiccup mumbled, placing his pome over his damaged side of his head and sitting up, wincing slightly.

"Well what are you doing up hear any way, sitting all by your self, I mean we don't want you around or anything but its still weird." Snotlout said matter-of-factly, crossing his arms and smirking down at Hiccups apparent annoyance.  
"Snotlout the day you want me around will be a very said day in deed." Hiccup said coldly, still not taking his hand off his ear.

"I know, I think I would jump off the ship then have you around." Snotlout scoffed, giving Hiccup a smirk.

"No I was referring to it would be a sad day for me because, quite frankly, even this conversation is giving me pain." Snotlout looked outraged at his twig of a cousin sprawled of the ship deck.

"What was that?" Snotlout spat, raising his fists in anger.

"That was an insult Snotlout, I am surprised you are not more familiar with them." Hiccup could not resist. Even though he was about to get his face smashed in he had to say it, this was literally his last chance before they hit the shores of Scotland. Snotlout however did not seem to like Hiccups branch of humor and grabbed him by the collar of his tunic.

"You little!" The boy grunted through clenched teeth. "You think you can get away with smarting off because were so close to Scotland? Well you've got another thing coming." Hiccup was dragged to his feet, and slammed against the wall of the cabin, his bright green eyes wide with a remember fear. _Oh damn that's right he's huge._ Hiccup braced himself for the punch but Snotlout's attention was suddenly drawn to a dot of light on his pulled back arm. Looking down to were his cousin was laying before Snotlout saw what looked to be a jet black scale gleaming at him from the wood floor, reflecting the light of the setting sun onto his thick muscled arm. Hiccup looked down as well and his hart leapt into his mouth. He had to have that back, it was all he had of Toothless, and he could not let Snotlout steel it.

"What is that?" Snotlout mused, looking closer at the scale but not releasing the tight grip he had on Hiccups tunic. "Is that a dragon scale?" A sudden scuffling caught Snotlout's attention. He looked up to see Hiccup fighting against his hold on him, hand reaching out to grab the scale. "Oh is that yours?" Snotlout asked playfully, his eyebrows rising.

"Yes now don't touch it!" Hiccup snapped, glaring at his cousin.

"I just wanna have a look, at it." Snotlout smiled, keeping his eyes locked on Hiccups as he slowly bent down for the scale, his other hand still pinning Hiccup against the wall.

"DON'T!" Hiccup yelled, his face darkening.

"Why not? Is it important to you or something?" Hiccup looked like he was ready to kill as Snotlout's fat fingers curled around the scale, lifting it up to eye level and examining it. "What the."

Snotlout muttered to himself, turning the scale over and staring at it with curiosity. "What kind of dragons like this? I've never seen a black one before . . . " The words trailed off as Snotlout's mind connected some thoughts together to make an outline of an idea, this was not something that his mind was use to doing so the process was slow and not completely there. Hiccup however saw that his thick cousin was managing some how to peace the story together and needed to act quickly, before something really bad happened. Hiccup reached down and pinched the under side of Snotlout arm, were the skin was tight and sensitive. "Ouch!" Snotlout cried and loosened his grip on his cousin's caller. Hiccup then moved his hand up and pulled the boys fingers back, hearing a popping noise as he dislocated one of the tendons. "AHH!" Snotlout screamed, attempting to muffle his yell with his hand and letting go of Hiccup. The auburn haired boy immediately jumped for the scale that was still clutched in Snotlout's hand. Wrestling the two boys fell over on the deck. Snotlout grunted as his head hit the floor with a loud thump, but his helmet blocked any serious damage. Hiccup's face was scrunched up and bright red as he grappled for the dragon scale, his knee digging into Snotlout stomach. "What the - hell is – your – problem?" Snotlout spat through clenched teeth as Hiccup dug his fingernails into Snotlout's hand.

"Its mine give it back!" Hiccup shouted, forgetting to keep his voice low so the grownups did not hear them.

"Its just a scale!" Snotlout cried, twisting Hiccups arm and knocking him to the side with a punch to the chest.

"No its not! Its all I have left now give!" But just as Hiccup jumped on Snotlout's arm, ready to bight his fingers off and make his pig of a cousin eat them for all the pain and trouble he had inflicted when Snotlout let go of the glossy black dragon scale. It was flung away from the tow boys, gleaming at Hiccup in the light of the setting sun, flying closer and closer to the edge of the ship. "No!" Hiccup cried, reaching his hand out for the last link to Toothless he had, but his arm was to short, and his legs were tangled up in Snotlout's body, and the scale fell out of sight. The small insignificant splashing noise it made as it hit the water made Hiccups eyes gleam extra bright. "YOU!" Hiccup spat, grabbing Snotlout by the front of his gray shirt. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone! You always have to do this to me, every single time! No matter what! Things are bad enough why did you have to!"

"Hiccup relax." Snotlout sputtered. This was not at all the normal routine when it came to bullying his cousin. Something really big had snapped in Hiccups head if he was talking and acting like this. Hiccup pushed Snotlout's face away from him and stood up slowly. Breathing heavily Hiccup attempted to calm himself, but his hands curled and his face grew even redder. Snotlout was eyeing his cousin warily, not daring to more from the ground. But then another person rounded the corner.

"Hiccup lad I need to . . . what in Thor's name is going on hear?" Gobber stared dumbstruck at the scene before him, looking like some one had just cracked an egg on his head. Hiccup was standing over a very scared looking Snotlout; his small hands balled into fists and his face a bright angry red.

"Gobber!" Snotlout gasped, scrambling up and running behind the adult. "Hiccups gone crazy, he attacked me for no reason you gadda help me!" Gobber's eye browse crinkled as he looked from Snotlout's shivering figure, to Hiccups stiff one.

"Hiccup, would you follow me lad, I need to talk with you in your cabin." Hiccups face did not pail, it did not flitch. He glared at the Blacksmith, but said nothing. Taking a deep breath, and wiping his eyes once, Hiccup followed Gobber to the lower deck.

"Sit down lad." Gobber said calmly, pointing with his hook to a bench next to the back wall of the small room. Hiccup did as he was told, his hair falling over his face as he leaned forward, arms on knees. Gobber scuffled around the room for a few minutes but Hiccup paid him no mind. The boy just watched a spider crawl over his boot, waiting to be shouted at. However when a scraping noise came to his ears Hiccup looked up. Gobber was dragging a very old looking chock board out from behind Hiccups small closet.  
"Gobber what are you doing?" Hiccup asked, his mouth open slightly.

"I'm dragging a chock board what dos it look like?" The blacksmith retorted helpfully, pulling the ancient board to stand in front of Hiccup. The small Viking rolled his eyes at the comment and sat up, crossing his arms.

"Yes thank you Gobber for your brilliant input. Why do you have a chock board? I thought you didn't approve of learning."

"Hay I never said I didn't approve of learning, I just said I don't approve of school. It's overrated, and wakes you up far to early in the morning." Hiccup snickered slightly but was still thoroughly confused. "But!" Gobber began, pulling out a very small piece of chock. "For this case I will let it pass."

"Your gonna teach me something?" Hiccup said dryly, eyeing the blacksmith with less then enthusiasm.

"What are you looking at me like that for? I taught you everything you know about the forge!"

"Yeah Gobber, but there is a difference between learning how to forge metal and . . . what are you teaching me any way?"

"Ah I'm glad you asked! Because this is a subject I in fact know quite a bit about. Maybe not as much as blacksmithing, but quite a bit more then this tribe and quite a lot more then you!" With that Gobber turned from his apprentice's confused face to wright one word down on the board. _Women. _Hiccups face dropped from confusion to down wright horror.

"You're going to teach me about women!" The boy choked.

"Yes and not just any woman but-" Gobber wrote a name done under the first word, the chock scratching and shrieking as Gobber slowly spelt out _Merida of DunBroch._ Hiccup moaned into his hand as he realized why he was here. Not to be scolded for dislocating his cousins finger, or simply pulled out of the way so he would not start trouble, but to be instructed about how to court a girl he did not want to get to know.

"Don't look so miserable lad, it's not like were fighting a dragon or something, its just a girl." Gobber said cheerfully, not understanding the look of anguish on his apprentice's face.

"I fail to see the difference." Hiccup spat back, resting his arms on his knees again and looking like he was going to be sick.

"Now you see that is why we are hear!" Gobber snapped, his temper rising. "You don't know how to talk to people properly, let alone a lady."

"Gee, can't imagine why that is." Hiccup mumbled, slumping further in his chair. However at the look that Gobber flashed him made the boy sit up on the bench, and decide it would be safer if he kept his mouth shut.

"Wright, lets begin." Gobber said sternly, and moved to the chock board. "Lets see if we can fix all of this." The traditional gesture was given to Hiccup, but the boy said nothing. He had regrettably, gotten use to it. Hiccup was then tortured through a twenty minute lessen about how to stop being a smart mouthed, smug little boy, and learn instead to act like a no nonsense, mature young man. Hiccup didn't listen though, he rather liked being a smart mouth, it was the only thing he had over the other Vikings. Besides he was feeling to sick with anxiety to really take anything Gobber said in. When the lecture was finally over Hiccup was staring blankly at a spot just beneath the board, looking like he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. "Hiccup!" Gobber snapped, bringing the boy's attention back to him. Hiccup looked dazedly up at the blond man, his eyes still glazed over with boredom. "Did you hear what I just said?" The blacksmith asked, crossing his arms sternly.

"Uh . . ." Hiccup grimaced, thinking madly for the answer. "Was it about Princess Merida?" Hiccup stammered.

"This hole lessens about Princess Merida." Gobber growled.

"Well I was wright then." Hiccup smirked, but faltered at the look Gobber was giving him.

"For Thor's sake Hiccup!" The blacksmith bellowed, causing Hiccup to sink in his seat. "You just did what I have bin telling you for the last twenty minutes not to do! Don't talk back, don't be rude and don't be well this!" Gobber once again gestured to all of him. "I have told you and told you! Yeah godda charm them, be respectful and for Oden's sake stop acting like such a smug smart mouth!" Silence fell in the room. Hiccup was looking miserably up at Gobber, his big green eyes misting over with tears as the words his teacher shouted at him sunk in. Gobber too was panting, his throat hurt from the yelling, and a red tinge was crossing over his cheeks. But the blacksmith's hart sank to his boots as he saw the effect that his anger had done. Hiccup trembled; his stomach twisting as he realized that he was even a disappointment to Gobber, the one person beside Toothless and occasionally Astrid that liked him. "Hiccup." Gobber croaked, his voice sown with sadness and regret. "Hiccup lad I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-" But Hiccup was finished; he couldn't deal with this any more. First he had to go to Scotland, possibly to never come home, he had to fight for a girls had in marriage, some one he did not know and new that she did not want to know him ether. Leave Toothless, his best friend and then have Snotlout lose the scale, the last bit he had of Toothless. But Gobber screaming at him was the thing that broke everything. Hiccups breaths grew rushed and short, his mind was filling with water and he started seeing black spots. "Hiccup!" Gobber gasped, dropping the chock and kneeling down in front of the hyperventilating boy. "Hiccup calm down I'm sorry for saying those things I shouldn't of done it! You need to calm down and breath slowly!" Hiccup could hear Gobber shouting, and felt the hand of some one on his shoulder but the black dots were starting to connect in his vision, and it was getting harder and harder to see things. Gobber realized that his tactic of shouting at Hiccup to calm down was not helping matters much. "Hiccup." Gobber said slowly, deciding a calm, low tone may be better to quiet the boy down. "Hiccup I need you to look at me." Hiccups auburn head raised slightly, green sparks of light poking out from behind the tangle of bangs. "Okay Hiccup you need to stop breathing so quickly, you're not getting any air." Hiccups face contorted with fear, but his breathing slowed, now only twice as fast as normal. "Good good, now lad, I need you to think about were we are. Your on a ship, your not in Scotland yet, there's lots of time before you have to do anything." Hiccup nodded quickly, his breaths deepening, but still fast. Picture the ship don't think about anything else. Now, stop breathing fast." Hiccups chest slowly halted, his gasps of air became normal, and his hart rate quivered back to a steady pump. Sniffing Hiccup looked up at Gobber through teary eyes, his face paled over but less frantic then it had bin two minutes ago. "Oh gods lad don't do that." Gobber gasped when he saw that Hiccup had finally started breathing properly. The man got up slowly and sat down beside his shivering apprentice, his face in his hands. "I had no idea what was wrong with you! I thought that you were possessed by Loki or something." Gobber mumbled, his face still berried in his hands.

"N-No." Hiccup said meekly, his head lowered and his shoulders still shaking. "I just c-couldn't breathe."

Gobber looked over at his apprentice, worry and fear embroidered in the look he was giving Hiccup.

"Lad what's the matter? I have never seen you lose it like that? What are you so afraid of ?" Hiccup bit his lip, and leaned forward, placing his head in his arms and looking at the floor.  
"I don't want to go to Scotland Gobber. I don't want to get married, I don't want to leave home, and I don't want to be forced into a fight for some girl who wont like me." Gobber's face saddened, the unfairness of the situation dawning upon the blacksmith too.  
"I- I know lad, and I'm sorry that this is happening. Thor was never kind to you when it came to luck, and I wish I can stop it but I cant, I can only help you."

"Well your not helping!" Hiccup snapped, his face popping out of his arms and shot Gobber a fureas look. "You, my dad, everyone on that damn island you never helped! So stop pretending!" Hiccup glared down at the floorboards of the ship again, his fists curling around the sides of the bench he was sitting on, causing his knuckles to turn white. Gobber watched Hiccups shaking figure for a second, regret passing over his face.  
"Your wright lad." Gobber finally mumbled. Hiccup looked over at the blacksmith, tears still threatening to spill over onto his cheeks. "I'm sorry about the things I've said, they weren't right." Hiccups glair melted, but he did not smile.

"Yeah I'm sorry too." The boy groaned, turning back to look at the floor again.

"If you are so against getting married then why don't you just loose the fight?" Hiccups eyes flicked back to Gobber.

"What?"

"Well if you don't want to leave Berk then loose the challenge that the princess gives you." Hiccup thought about this but he had already come up with this plan. This was running away, and if he could not do it with the Nightmare, then he could not do it with Merida ether.

"I cant." Hiccup said sadly.

"Why the bloody hell not?" Gobber demanded.

Because . . . " Hiccup paused, choosing his words carefully. Because it I do that, and throw the challenge, then I would go back to being useless again, and I cant do that, never."

"But your not useless Hiccup, I haven't seen anyone take down a dragon like you." Gobber reminded, but this did not help Hiccups decision.

"If I loose this competition, and the people of Berk see, then it wont matter that I can stop a dragon from ripping my head off, because I stopped trying, and they will see that. If they know that I would rather have things go wright for me, and ignore all the people of Berk, then they will treat me worse then they did before. And the really awful part about that, is I would deserve it." Gobber stared at the boy, who seemed to have grown years older in that one small speech. Hiccup gave his teacher a week smile and looked back at his boots. "I'll take Merida's challenge, and do my best to win. I don't have any other option."

"Hiccup." The Viking boy looked over at Gobber, and was surprised to see him smiling. It was a small humble smile, looking like he had remembered something lovely, and comforting. "You don't know this but I didn't always run the forge alone before you came to be my apprentice."

"You had another apprentice?" Hiccup asked, wondering why Gobber had never told him this.

"No, no, she wasn't an apprentice." Gobber sighed, and looked thoughtfully off into space. Hiccups eyes widened, and his attention snapped entirely on to Gobber. "Are fathers were friends, and they wanted to expand their businesses. Well you know how family is, you godda do a lot of stupid things for them." Gobber gave Hiccup a smirk at this, and Hiccup smiled back, the tears on his cheeks drying. "I of course hated the idea of uniting are families, and fought my father on it for a long time. But, it really did not matter what I said. I was miserable for about two weeks after that, and she was less then happy with the whole ordeal as well. But then we got talking, that took a wile, and I realized that she was the smartest person I had ever met." Gobber paused at this and looked like he was remembering something important, but did not share it with Hiccup.

"W- what happened to her?" Hiccup asked tentatively, not knowing if he wanted to know the answer.

"Oh, winter came, and she didn't see spring." Gobber sighed heavily, and looked down, seeming to gain one thousand years of sadness. Hiccup shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what to do or say. Gobber however just straitened up, and looked at Hiccup with a kind smile. "But any way, what I am trying to say is I did not want to marry her either Hiccup, but there is nothing I am more thankful for. You would be surprised how often things work them selves out."

"But things didn't work out." Hiccup said, frowning in confusion. "You loved her and she died, that's not a happy ending."

"Don't be daft lad of course it is." Gobber chuckled. But Hiccup still did not get it. Gobber sighed and pressed on. "It doesn't matter that she died Hiccup, what matters is I loved her. We all know we are going to die, but we don't all know we are going to love." Hiccup puzzled at this, wondering if Gobber was just playing games with him, or if he was actually making some sense. "Ah you don't under stand your to young." Gobber snorted. With that he stood up and started putting the chock board away. "Don't just sit their lad!" Gobber laughed, dragging the board over the uneven wood and shouting over the horrible screeching noise it made. "Get your stuff together, were hitting the land of green in five minutes!"

Scotland stretched out in front of Hiccup like a giant green monster. The boy stood quietly on the deck of the DonBrock kingdom. His helmet, sword, trunk and satchel were all still safely aboard the Viking ship, as they were planning on setting up tents around the harbour to sleep in. But because Hiccup had a cabin he had nothing to un pack or set up, and was standing awkwardly in the middle of the hustle and bustle, wondering what he was suppose to be doing. His father certainly had not told him anything. Stoick was busy ordering men around and deciding ware tent should be. In fact he had not said a word to Hiccup when they had arrived nor since. Hiccup spotted a patch of blond hair and ran over to Gobber, who was lugging some ones trunk off the second ship. "Gobber." Hiccup started but then ducked as something brown and feathery shot at his head.

"Oh for Thor's sake Phil!" Gobber cursed, throwing the trunk at a Viking to catch, but knocking him into the water with the force of the toss. Phil the carrier pigeon sped like a knife to the tree line of a very big, very dark looking forest. Hiccup watched Phil go then turned back to the blacksmith.  
"Gobber what did you think was going to happen?" The less then emotion conscious Hiccup asked.

"Hiccup would you be a lad and-" Gobber began.

"What no!" Hiccup snapped.

"You don't even know what I'm gonna say!" Gobber cried. Hiccup rolled his eyes and slipped into a mimic of Gobber's accent.

"Hiccup lad would you got fetch Phil from the woods because I always need to have a small Phil named pet about me at all times." Gobber watched Hiccup pace back and forth on the dock, unamused in deed.

"Alright lad if you don't want to go look for ma bird then you can just help unpack the ships, I hope you don't mind a little heavy lifting." Hiccup faltered halfway through a step, his mouth slightly open as he remembered the two-ton trunks. Frowning, Hiccup faded back into his normal awkwardness and turned on his heel to find Gobber's stupid bird. "Atta boy Hiccup, I new I could count on you." Hiccup tried to give Gobber a scolding glair but tripped over a loose stone. Mumbling curse words as he walked away from the deck Hiccup suddenly herd his name being called. Turning the boy saw his father stomping over to him.

"Hiccup where are you going?" Stoick asked, suspicion laced in his deep voice.

"Gobber sent me to find the carrier pidgin, uh dad." Hiccup stammered, feeling particularly small in his fathers grate shadow.

"You mean the one that brought me the letter?" Stoick asked, remembering the small ball of feathers only vaguely.

"Uh yeah, that one. I think he's grown attached to it and it flu into the woods and-"

"Be quick Hiccup." Stoick replied, cutting his son off and turning back to his men. "Don't get dirty because we don't have a lot of time before meeting the roils, and I expect you back clean, happy and on time." Hiccup rolled his eyes at his fathers retreating back.

"Um yeah okay then." The boy mumbled, turning to the giant mass of trees. "Hate to be late to that charming little affair." A smile was unwillingly winding its way around Hiccups lips as he ran to the woods._ This is a pretty big forest._ The boy thought, sprinting faster as the solitude of the trees grew closer. _Who would blame me if I got lost in here for just a little wile?_

To no ones surprise, it took Hiccup less then six minutes to get horribly lost. However that was not all the fault of the distractible boy wondering absentmindedly through the trees, the wood seemed to be drawing him in, pulling at his tunic with the sweet winds and drawing his gaze with all the wonder and magic that all ancient forests hold. Hiccup kept his eyes up in the trees, searching for a spot of brown and feathers in the world of green he was walking in. "I don't know why Gobber sent me in hear in the first place." Hiccup said to himself, kicking a stone as he began to get a bit bored of looking for the pidgin. "I mean how am I going to find one bird in a forest like this." Hiccup waived his hands around the grate expanse of trees he was stuck in, talking to no one in particular. The sound of water suddenly came to his attention and Hiccups eyes fell on a small stream, not ten paces off. Frowning Hiccup walked slowly up to the small river. There was a large still puddle of water next to the babbling brook, and the Viking crouched down beside it. Shakily he rearranged his hair and washed his face, hoping that when he did meet princes Merida, she would not notice the tear tracks. Coughing as he got some of the water in his mouth Hiccup straightened up, rolling his shoulders as he did so. A twittering then came to his ears and Hiccups eyes popped open. Turning his head slowly Hiccup spotted a pidgin eating a bug on a tree branch. "Ha there you are!" Hiccup whispered, crouching down and inching slowly towards the bird. "You are a lot of trouble to find." The small Viking hissed, getting ready to grab the ball of feathers. "Okay, you are going to stay very still and not move, I am just gonna-" But as Hiccups hands outstretched Phil the pidgin took a quick look down at the boy, peeped once, and flu away. "No!" Hiccup cried and made a wiled snatch at the whirl of half eaten bug and feathers, but his hands clapped shut on thin air and the bird glided slowly away, giving a trilling singsong goodbye. "Yeah well will see who's laughing if I had my Dragon here!" Hiccup spat. "You would be an appetizer!" Phil however just shot another peep back at Hiccup, and soar off to find another spot to eat his bug. "Chasing a bird how the hell did Gobber convince me to go chasing a bird?" Hiccup complained. In an attempt to vent some of his anger Hiccup hit the branch that Phil hand bin sitting on, however he had swung to hard and the branch flu back and hit the Viking in the eye. "Ouch!" Hiccup cussed. "Why the do's that keep happening!" Biting his lip to distract himself from the pain Hiccup pressed his pome to his eye. The bruise throbbed dully. However Hiccups eyes cracked open again as he herd a strange giggling. It sounded like children. Hiccup looked around for the sores of the noise but didn't see anyone. "Um, hello?" The Viking called. The noise came again, closer this time. Frowning Hiccup looked up at the branch just above him. "AH what the!" The boy cried, stumbling back from the tree. A blue ball of light was waving at him from the branch. Hiccup gaped at the light, looking like no fire he had ever seen. The blue ball twisted once and waved at him again, gesturing form him to come closer. Hiccup looked around him to see if there was anyone there to explain this thing to him, but he was all alone in the woods. Panting Hiccup bent down, not taking his eyes off the puff of light and grabbed a stick. Inching closer with the stick outstretched like a sword Hiccup watched the blue light with interest. "Are you a dragon or something?" The boy asked, an eyebrow raised. The light did not answer, instead spun around again and waved for Hiccup to come closer. Biting his tongue Hiccup reached up to prod the light with the stick. But just like that the blue ball of fire vanished. Gasping Hiccup backed away from the tree, dropping the stick and looking wildly at the spot the fire had bin before. "No nope so much nope!" Hiccup hissed, turning on his heal to sprint back to the other Vikings, and pretend that none of this had ever happened. But as he turned the singsong voice came again. Hiccup glanced behind him to see the blue fairy light dancing and waving at him, cooing in a friendly way and beckoning for the boy to follow him. Hiccup bit his lip. _Oh dear Haddock don't do it._ Hiccup thought to himself as he took a step towards the blue light. _NO stop, go back to your dad and pretend that this was all a dream. _Hiccup took another step, his guard slowly braking as the light sang its pretty song._ I can't believe your doing this! Why do you never listen to me! _But Hiccup had stopped paying attention to the voice in his head; he was running after the light.

The fireball would vanish and fade from sight every time the boy came to near, but would reappear not a few paces away, directing the small Viking to who knows were.

Finally after a couple minutes of running the fairy led Hiccup to the edge of a small but steep cliff. In his hurry to see were the light was taking him Hiccup had run so fast that he had almost fallen off the drop but had managed to skid to a holt just in time. Panting from all the running Hiccup looked over at the blue fire ball beside him. "Wright." The boy gasped. "Uh now what?" The light pointed down the small cliff to the landing below. Hiccup glanced down and frowned with confusion. "Uh yeah I see that, a cliff. How am I suppose to get down there?" Hiccup glanced over at the light again but it had vanished. "Wait what!" The boy cried, looking around again for the ball of sparks. "Hey you can't just leave me here! I have no idea were I am!" The light did not respond. "Thank you so much, you useless fairy! Or well whatever you are." Grumbling in annoyance Hiccup ran a hand through his choppy hair, having no idea what he was suppose to do now. But another voice wafted up to him. It was a girl's voice. Frowning again Hiccup leaned over the cliff to see if he could spot her.

"Oi were did you little buggers go!" The voice said, sounding as angry and confused as Hiccup felt. Hiccup leaned further forward, squinting through the trees, a bright patch of red could be seen moving, walking slowly closer to him. "Wisps!" The girl called, walking closer and closer to Hiccup. The Viking could not see what she looked like, the leaves of the trees blocked out his view but he could make out a wiled crop of red hair. It was quite a nice shade. Hiccup thought, leaning further over the edge to try and see her face. But then his foot slipped forward, and the cliff edge crumbled under his wait. With a cry Hiccup tumbled down from his spot on the ledge, closing his eyes so he did not have to watch the ground rush up to meat him. But the thing he collided with was not as hard as he thought it was going to be, however as he hit it the thing gave a scream of pain and surprise. Hiccups eyes flashed open and looked down on what he had landed on, or rather whom he had landed on. He was nose to nose with a pretty girl of around sixteen, with bright blue eyes and a wild mane of bushy red hair.

* * *

Authors Nots: Luckily for you gize i'v bin sick all weekend, so lots of staying in bed and writing. Sorry that this chapter is so sad but i wanted to set up characters and problems. Next one will be happier i promise. Its snowing hear in Canada and i hope you get some snow to play in to. Happy Christmas and see you all soon.


	5. Chapter 5: First Encounter

Chapter 5

First Encounter

Merida's breath was coming in short and sharp. She was blinking up at a pair of evergreen eyes, as large as apples in his pail face. It was a boy, around the same age as her. He had a messy crop of auburn hair that was currently tickling her forehead and more freckles then she could count. He seemed to be just as shocked as Merida, his face pulling away quickly as he realized that he was lying on her. "Oh God's sorry about this I'll just." He pulled back and tried to slide off Merida's chest so their bodies were no longer pressed together, but only managed to slip on the dewy ground. The green eyes widened and his face fell very close to hers, so close in fact that her hot breath brought a blush to his cheeks. "Ah no, not that way." The boy awkwardly stammered, his fingers some how getting tangled in Merida's mane of bushy red hair. At this point the princess had had enough. Her face hardening she grabbed the boy's arm, tight enough to bring a gasp to his lips, and twisted his hole body violently. She then pushed his gangly figure off her now filthy riding dress.  
"I don't know." Merida began, jumping up quickly and grabbing a large branch that was lying near by. "Who taught you how to catch the eye of a pretty girl but-" Merida then raised the branch high over her head and got ready to bash it through the stupid boys face. "You have definitely got the wrong idea and the wrong girl lad!"

At this the boy started scooting away from her, his big green eyes wide with fear as Merida advanced at him with the branch, ready to swing.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait!" He cried, raising his hands to protect his head. Merida hesitated, the branch shaking in her grip, half way through a blow. "No need for bludgeoning or anything!" He stammered, peeking at Merida from around his arms.

"I'm not gonna bludgeon you." Merida snapped, her hair crackling with rage. "I'm just gonna make a mast through the top of your head!"

"Yes that's called impaling, and that's bad too." The boy gasped, causing Merida to frown in annoyance, the branch was growing heavy. "Look, ma lady, I can explain. If you would just-" He then gestured for Merida to drop the very large stick, but she didn't. The princesses eyes narrowed at the shaking boy, assessing her attacker and deciding if he really was that big of a threat for her to violently beet across the head. He was small, and skinny, a green tunic draping off his shoulders with a brown fur vest bundling him tightly up. His face was pail, and speckled with freckles. He was hansom in his own way, thin lips curling his face with a button noise resting above it. His hair was of a copper shade, with streaks of brown and red running through it. It was messy, much like the rest of him. All together he was a young weedy looking boy, of about sixteen. In fact, as Merida stared the branch above her head dropped slightly, feeling a strange notion of calm when she saw him. He reminded Merida of a small evergreen tree, which had grown in the shadow of a very large forest. So, over time, it had shrunk in size, and twisted awkwardly in an attempt to get some sunlight. The branch grew heavier.

Alright lad." Merida sighed, letting her weapon fall to her hip. "You get your explanation." The boys face broke out in a rainbow of relief, dropping is arms form his head and looking cautiously up at her. "But if its rubbish then I make this stick and new home in you stomach."

"Uh." The auburn haired boy grimaced. "Well I guess that's fair, -ish."

"Corse it is, I'm always fair." Merida smiled, brushing off her branch and winking at him.

"Clearly." The boy groaned, and sat up strait.

"Start." Merida snapped, as a long pause stretched out.

"Oh right." The boy stammered. "I was um . . . walking in the woods and then I got slightly lost. So I went looking around for a rode or something and I stumbled across this cliff." The boy then pointed up at the ledge above them. "Well I looked over it and I saw something moving beneath, that it turns out was you, but anyway. I leaned over the edge to see who it was and I . . . I fell off." The lad ended his very rotten sounding explanation with a small nervous smile, his big green eyes growing to the size of dinner plates.

"Yee fell off?" Merida said deadpan, her eye browse knitting together.

"Yep. Not something that I plan on doing but well . . . here we are." At that the boy gestured around their small clearing, his eyes still locked on Merida. The princess gave the lad a withering look, she knew that there were big chunks missing from his story but she did believe that he did not mean to fall on her. "So um, n-now that I have explained could you drop the very large stick?" Merida bit her lip in thought, looking down at her branch and then back at the boy. The stick made a loud thud as it hit the ground. Sighing the boy stood up, his chest rising and falling a little faster then normal. "Look thanks." He said, brushing dirt off his hands and not looking at Merida. "Not many people would believe me and its nice to-" But his sentence was cut off as Merida punched him, very hard in the face. The force of the blow knocked the boy backwards slightly, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground again.

"No its ok mate I completely understand, some times things just happen, I get it relay." Merida shouted over the boy's loud gasp of pain and his even louder swearing.

"GAH!" He shouted through clenched teeth, biting his lip so hard against the stabbing throb in his left cheek that he drew blood. "You punched me!" The boy cried, looking up at Merida with darkened eyes, his hand firmly pressed over the bruise blushing on the side of his head.

"You fell on me!" Merida replied, her shout hampered slightly by giggles.

"I didn't mean to!" The boy snapped back.

"Oh well I didn't mean to either, there. Dos that make you feel better?"

The boy apparently did not feel better from this, for he said something very nasty, and then told Merida to go away. Merida merely turned on her heal, not offended by the rude language in the slightest and walk towards the center of the clearing, flicking her long braded hair as she went.  
"Bloody hell." The girl mumbled, looking around the glade again for any sine of the wisps. "With all your shouting you scared them off." Frowning Merida scanned the tree line, but her concentration was broken by the auburn haired boy's very strange swearing.  
"Thor all mighty you really did a number on me. Ouch! Son of a sock steeling, Loki loving troll that hurt. Dammit! I'm bleeding now, why did this have to happen on top of everything else. Ouch!"

Merida turned to see the green clad figure gently massaging his cheekbone, blood from his lip drooling down to his chin.

"Uh what are you moaning about now?" Merida sighed, walking back over to the lad. He apparently was still mad at Merida and shot her an icy glair. "Its just a small punch, I barely hit you."

"Uh you know your right, I mean after all the stuff that has happened today I should just be use to physical pain." The boy said calmly. Merida missed the rather heavy sarcasm. Staring at the auburn haired child for a second, her mouth lightly open from the rather strange statement.

"Sure you do that." She said in and off hand way, deciding that this boy was properly weird. She turned away from the lad again; missing the eye roll he gave her and walked over to the center of the clearing, skimming the tree line for any sine of blue lights. "Wright lad know that we have agreed on that you can just skip on home while I get back to what I was doing before."  
"What's that then?"

Merida stiffened at the question and turned to see the boy looking critically at her, arms crossed.

"I beg your pardon."

"Well you know what I'm doing in these woods, so what are you doing in hear?" The boy asked, his voice losing the ferocity it had before and becoming innocently curious.

"You never said what you were doing out hear." Merida retorted.

"Yes I did, I said I was walking."  
"Yeah you said you were doing that, I never told you I believed you."

The boy's eyes widened at this, and Merida knew then that he was definitely lying to her before.

"Okay how about this. I say what I was doing in the woods if you say what your doing in the woods." The boy bargained, hope curling his face into a small smile. Merida calculated her options for a moment, but there was really nothing else to do for now and she could not help feeling a little curious as to what the boy really was doing before he had fallen on her.

"Alright but you have to promise not to laugh." Merida sighed, some curls coming lose from her braid. The boy's smile broadened, twirling his features and crinkling his green eyes.

"I promise if you promise." Both children walked forward and met in the center of the glade. They then reached up and shook hands, there eyes digging into the others to detect lying. The boy's hand was a lot colder then Merida's, with scabs and grooves in the flesh. He had very clearly worked with hot materials from a young age judging by all the burn marks flaking his skin. The coolness of his pome was soothing to Merida's worm one, like ice on a bruise or cut. They shook once.

"Promise?"

"Promise." and then dropped the handshake. "Okay you want to know what I was doing in the woods?" The boy started, his hands on his hips. A smile was still twirling around his lips and it looked like he was struggling not to laugh at his own predicament. "I was sent out here to find a bird."

"A- a what?" Merida snickered, not knowing if she heard it properly.

"A bird." The boy moaned. Closing his eyes in shame. "My friend got a pet pigeon and it flue off into the woods. So-"

"So he sent you in after it!" Merida laughed, completely forgetting her promise.

"Yeah." The boy smiled, giggling a bit at the sentence to. "And would you believe it, I had a rather hard time finding it."  
"HA! I could imagine." Merida snickered, her curls bouncing with the force of her laughter.

"You are horrible at keeping promises!" The boy shouted, but he was laughing too. Something about the way Merida was smiling seemed to cheer him up from the truly awful day he was having.  
"Did you even end up finding it?" Merida gasped, her arms rapped around her stomach.

"No." The boy admitted, his cheeks stinging from smiling. "But I bet Gobber will still be upset when I come back empty handed."

The two of them laughed on for another three minutes; their sides splitting with repressed giggling. Honestly in Merida's mind she new that it wasn't even that funny, but it was so nice to laugh this hard again and she could not help but laugh on harder. "Okay you now know my stupid reason to get lost in the woods." The boy sighed, the giggling finally quieting down. "Why are you out here? And un like someone I'm gonna keep my promise of no laughing."

Merida smiled up at him, her face flushed.

"I was riding through the woods and I saw a will of the wisp, so I followed it. Remember no laughing." But there wasn't any, the boy just looked blankly at her, his face twisted slightly in confusion.

"Will of the who?" He asked, eyebrows knitted.

"Wait what?" Merida said in surprise. "You don't know about the will of the wisp's?" The boy's vacant expression answered the question for him. Really? You have no idea?" The boy shook his head. "Didn't your mother ever tell you stories about them?" A sudden darkness passed over the lad's face and he looked down at the ground.

"No she didn't." He mumbled, his fingers picking at his fraying sleeve. Merida bit her lip as she realized that this was not a topic to be lightly brushed over.  
"Well anyways wisps are these small balls of blue light that- why are you looking at me like that?" The boy's expressions had abruptly changed from moodily looking at his shoes to staring up at Merida with sudden realization, his eyes wide and his lips pressed together.

"Because I think I've seen one." He said slowly. Merida blinked in surprise, slightly taken a back, but she recovered rather quickly.

"No you haven't, your just trying to get back at me for laughing at you before."  
"No I swear!" The boy shouted, his voice rushed and frantic. "They are these small balls of blue fire that sing and disappear when you go up to touch one." He was panting now, lights flicking on in his head as things started making sense. "I saw one over there." He pointed to the cliff. "It made this noise like children singing, and gestured for me to come closer, and when I did-"

"They vanished." Merida gasped, completing his sentence. "Bloody hell you have seen them."

"Yeah!" The boy smiled, seeming relieved that Merida had believed him. "I followed that trail."

"And they led you hear." Merida puzzled, her eyebrows knitting again.

"So . . . so what dos that mean?" The boy asked, some of the franticness falling from his voice. A long pause stretched out between the two, and it wasn't tell Merida's eyes snapped on to the boys that she realized he was waiting for her answer.

"I don't know!" She cried.

"You must know something! You're the expert here!"

"No I'm not I learn things I don't teach them, I don't know anything!" The boy gave Merida a stern look at that, his brows creasing in disbelief. "Okay I'll rephrase I don't know anything useful."

"Yeah well neither do I! But right now you are the expert because you knew about the wisps before I did."

"Uh" Merida moaned dragging her fingers over her face and loosening another few curls.

"Here can you tell me what the wisps do? I mean beside geting you horribly lost and push you off a cliff?" The boy asked, attempting to make Merida's life a little easier.

"Well what they are suppose to do is lead you to your fate, you know, so you can change it."

"Fate?" The boy said, his tongue tripping over the word.

"You don't believe in fate?" Merida asked in surprise.

"No, I never did." The boy shrugged.

"Well what do you believe in then?"

The boy looked down at the ground in thought, his hand running absentmindedly through his hair.

"I don't really believe in anything. I guess the gods, but there not to bothered with me."  
"You believe in gods?" Merida frowned, wondering how the boy could have faith in such fantastical things like gods but not fate.

"Uh we can banter about are belief system later, now I just want to figure out what this wisp stuff means." The boy snapped, rubbing his arm anxiously. Merida sighed and flicked a curl out of her eyes.

"So your wisp led you hear?"

"Yeah."

"And mine led me hear as well."

"Then . . . " the boy pondered, his eyes crinkling in thought. "Are fate must be around hear some were, only possible explanation." Merida and the boy's heads both immediately started flicked around the clearing.

"Come on!" Merida shouted and grabbed the boy's hand, pulling him along. "I have some were important to be so we have to make this quick."

The search of the clearing lasted about ten minutes, and the results were dismal. Merida and the boy found nothing but the trees around them. No sine of the wisps and no sine of their fate. Tired and panting from their short but thorough search the two children stomped back to the center of the glade empty handed.

"That's it I give up!" the boy moaned, his bangs sticking to his forehead with sweat.

"You – bloody- wee- lamb." Merida panted, frowning down at the boy as he collapsed in the grass.

"Uh I don't care, call me names." The boy grumbled sleepily, pulling his arm over his eyes. "I'm just gonna sleep hear for a couple hundred years . . . don't mind me."

"Uh get up!" Merida said determinedly. "Are fate is around her some were now help me look!"  
"I don't see it do you?" The boy asked groggily, his glassy green eyes meeting Merida's fiery once. "We looked, we lost and now I sleep. No wonder I don't believe in this fate stuff, you waist your hole life looking for it."  
"We just aren't looking hard enough, now come one!" Merida cried, nudging the boy a little with her boot. "It's probably staring us right in the face!" The boy and the girl shared a look again, green eyes bleak and board and blue eyes bright and burning.  
"Nope I only see you." The boy moaned, covering his face again. Merida rolled her eyes and crouched down to the boys level.  
"Come on lad!" Merida wined, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him up. "You are the only other person I have ever met that has seen them!" She gasped, struggling under his wait, but the boy stubbornly did not move. "So we have to – look - before I have to go - back to the castle for that – Lord thing." Sharp breaths hampered her speech as she managed to pull the boy to shoulder height before he violently flailed at the last word she said. The two fell backwards in a heap of green and brown fabric.

"Thor and fire!" the boy shouted, his head popping out from the mass of bodies, some of Merida's red curls tangled in his own brown locks. As fast as steel the boy was up, tripping once over Merida's legs and bolting over to the cliff face again. "I have to get to the DunBroch castle NOW!"

"What?" Merida asked, arching her back on the ground so she was looking at the shivering boy upside down.

"Please can you help me get there?" He shouted, his hole body trembling. "I don't know were I am an I need to get to the main hall."

_Home? _Merida thought._ Why dos he need to go to my home? Wait! I need to go there too! Why was that again? _Clean happy and on time rang in both of the children's ears at that one split second, both harts grip with fear of their punishment if they were late. "OH god of hell and high heaven!" Merida screamed, her curls blazing like bonfire's as she too sprung to her feet.  
"WE NEED TO GET BACK TO THE CASLE!" She cried her braid a tangled mess now. The boy nodded vigorously his eyes paled over with a frantic mist. Neither of the children found it odd that they both had to reach the kingdom of DunBroch, for they were now running to fast to think strait. Merida had seized a hand full of the boys vest and dragged him in the direction she had come form, were she knew Angus was grazing. Hopping over logs and duking under branches, the to bolted through the woods, their breath sharp in their throats. _Horse! Horse! Horse! _Merida thought frantically, turning her head this way and that as she searched for her skittish pony. Sliding to a halt Merida cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed for Angus to come. The boy's breath was hot on the back of her neck as he pulled up behind her. It ruffled Merida's hair and brought a blush curling up her neck and up to her cheeks.

A sudden clip clop noise fell on the princess's ears and she spun around to see her gray stallion thumping up to meet her. The boy caught a face full of red hair before spiting out a curl and noticing the steed as well.

"He's the biggest horse I've ever seen." The lad gasped, the franticness leaving his face for a moment.  
"Yeah." Merida sighed stepping over to climb up on the saddle. "But he doesn't really like new people that much so just come over hear carefully and I'll-" But the lad had step forward cautiously, his fingers quivering as he reached up to press his pome against the horses velvet nose. Merida gasped and got ready to grab the gray stallion to stop him from charging done the small boy, but there was no need. Angus's head dipped as he pressed his nose into the small pome, his eyes closing and his ears flattening. Merida stared, her mouth open slightly as she watched the lad scratch her skittish horse on the neck, his lips twirling.  
"Have you got a horse of your own?" The princess gasped.

"What? No." The boy giggled, seeming to find her question very funny. "He's certainly not a horse." The boy ran his fingers through the black main of the stallion, his hole expression and demeanor completely relaxed. The horse nuzzled his nose into the lads green tunic, his hot breath causing the auburn hair to shoot up.

The boy had a lot more trouble getting on to the horse then he did greeting it. He kept mumbling that it was a lot easier when they were lower down, but Merida ignored him. She had no idea how long she had spent in the forest, timed seemed to have forgotten his duty for the day, and the minutes were morphing into hours. As soon as the boy had finally pulled himself on, Merida swung herself expertly onto the steed's back, her hair hitting the lad in the face again as she did so. "Right mate, have you ever bine riding before?" Merida asked, positioning herself snugly in the leather saddle.  
"Uh." Was the answer she herd. "N- no not horses."  
"Well okay its really simple just place your hands on ma waist."

"What!"

"Place your hands on ma waist!"

"Uh."

"Bloody hell." Merida spat and spun in her seat. She grabbed the boys hands and planted them firmly on her hips. "Hold on tight lad." She whispered, and gave him a wink that brought a flush to his face.

"Look ma lady I have actually ridden on a- uh, well iv done riding before so you don't need to worry to aaahhhhhh!" The horse shot out like a cork from a wine bottle. The hands that were once tenderly resting on her hips were now know rapped tightly across her stomach.

"You were saying lad!" Merida called over her shoulder, a smile on her lips again.

"Uh this is just horrible!" Was the response.

"What kind of riding do you do then? This here is the best horse I've ever seen!"

"The bouncing up and done is just terrible! How do you stand this?" The boy shouted back, his head berried in Merida's hair. A summer time laughter rang from the princess as the two bolted back to the kingdom of DunBroch.

"You'll learn to love it!" She sang out, winding her hands in the black main and directing the horse expertly through the thinning forest.

Eleanor was chewing on her tongue in the main hall of DunBroch castle. The lords were dew hear any minute now and her rambunctious fire head of a daughter was no were to be seen. She had Maudie checking the stables while she kept and eye on the front door. Merida certainly was on thin ice, and nothing could possibly make her situation any more treacherous. Bang! Eleanor jumped in her seat at the front of the hall; her posture improving immensely when she feared there may be some one to see her. Peering over from her hidden spot behind one of the pillars. She saw a bright crop of auburn hair barrel his way into the hall, his brown fur vest hanging in a tangle from his thin shoulders.

"Oh thank Thor!" the boy sighed placing his hand on his forehead and leaning up against the door front.  
"Did we make it?" Came the disembodied voice of her daughter. The boys face brightened and then turned to the doorway.

"Hay! We did!" The boy panted, his chest rising and falling at an alarming rate.  
"Thank bloody god!" Was the startling response. Eleanor stiffened at the sharp tongue of her daughter, shocked that she would even use such language.

The streak of red and brown was all that Eleanor saw of her daughter as she too bolted into the grate hall. When she had skidded to a halt beside the beaming boy the queen finally took in the disheveled figure of her panting princess. Merida's hair was even more a mess then normal. It was half done up in a french braid down her back, the rest of it tumbling loosely across her sweaty face. She had dirt smudged across her nose and twigs lodged haphazardly in her red curls. Her dress was the worst of all though. It was powdered in dust and dirt. The light brow of the dress caked in mud and filth so you could not even see the original colour. She was disgusting looking. The boy beside her however was no better. In fact he was even a little worse. He too had twigs and leaves lodged in his hair. His face was powdered with dirt and his clothes were ripped and filthy. A large bruise was blossoming under his left eye, were a small cut ripped his cheekbone. More blood was dripping done from his lips, drooling to his chin and dotting his tunic with red. However as the to children glanced happily at each other, they did not seem to notice the state of second hand they were in. "Ok lad." Merida panted, her hands on her thighs as she bent over in exhaustion. "I'll give you this. Even if- you are- the- worst ever at- getting on a horse you bloody well can run."

The boy smiled at her as he sank to the ground, his back sliding down the stonewall.  
"I really didn't think we were gonna make it." He gasped, his speech still hampered by rushed breaths.

"Yeah I know." Merida giggled "You would not believe ma mums face if we didn't."

"Uh!" The boy laughed. "My dad would have my head - on a spit if I – if I . . ." Realization was crossing the boys face like a hurricane. He stiffened and got up slowly, his eyes glancing up and down Merida's smiling figure. "Why do you need to get hear on time?" The boy asked, his voice lased with anxiety. Merida looked at the boy in confusion, not having put two and two together yet.

"For the- thing. You know- the lord thing." She panted, her hands still on her thighs.

"Oh no." The boy groaned, his eyes wide. "You- you're joking."

"What?" Merida snapped, straitening up and frowning at the boy. "W- why are you…" Merida's eyes grew as large as the lads as she stared at him. "Oh shit."

"MERIDA!" Eleanor shouted, immerging form her hiding spot, her face livid. "What kind of language is that?" Both children jumped at the sudden adult.  
"Mum!" Merida cried, her hand flying to her hair as she attempted to flatten it.

"Oh come on." The boy moaned looking from Merida to Eleanor. "The hole time I was talking to you!" Merida shot the boy a very nasty look, her fist balling. "This is just evil." The lad mumbled, running his hands through his messy hair.

"Who are you anyway?" Eleanor asked sharply, causing the boy took flinch. He opened his mouth to respond but a booming voice did it for him.

"Hiccup!" Came the very loud very deep voice of Stoick the vast. The auburn haired boy looked like he had just bin doused in icy water as he turned to see his fathers stern figure marching up to the great hall door. Behind him was a group of lost looking Vikings, their hair glimmering copper and gold in the setting sun.

"You're the Viking?" Merida sneered, her mouth dropping in disbelief. Hiccup turned from his father's approaching figure to glair at Merida.  
"Your one to talk princess Merida." The boy spat, his green eyes dark and cold again.  
"Hiccup lad were in Valhalla have you-" But then Stoick caught the chilling glair of the Queen. "Lady Eleanor." The chief gasped, inclining his head slightly in respect.

"Stoick." Queen Eleanor said coldly, her frail body drawn up to full height. "I take it this is your boy, Hiccup." All eyes turned down to Hiccups pail face.

"Yes this-" But then Stoick stopped at the sight of the blood staining his sons cheek and lip. "Hiccup lad, what happen to you?" Hiccup looked with confusion at his dad for a moment, before licking his lip and tasting the blood still wet on his mouth.

"Oh!" The Viking boy stammered, remembering the multiple injury's he was sporting. "Yeah that." His eyes snapped on to Merida who was chewing her fingernail. Their eyes looked for a second and Merida shook her head once, her face pleading. She then glanced anxiously over at her mum who was glaring sternly down at her. Hiccup looked up at his own dad who was giving him the same look.  
"T- tree branch." He stammered, rubbing the back of his neck in false embarrassment. "I bent a tree branch back and it hit me in the eye." Stoick rolled his eyes at his son and mumbled something like 'you would do something stupid like that.'  
"Ok lad, go over to Gobber and he can give you a ruff patch up." Stoick said sternly, pinching the bridge of his noise. Hiccup seemed relieved to slip out from under his father's gaze and turned on his heal to run out the door. Jumping the last step of the staircase to the grate hall Hiccup shot a quick look over his shoulder at Merida's shrinking figure. She was looking sourly at her shoes as her mother chastised her for arriving so dirty. However she peeked up through her tangle of red hair at Hiccup, mouthing the worlds 'Thanks for not telling.' Hiccup gave her a small smile and then turned to be gawked at by the rest of the Vikings.

"Hiccup what happen!" Gobber blurted, his eyes falling on his disheveled looking apprentice. "You look like you got into a fight with a bear." Hiccup smirked moodily at this. _Nope._ The boy thought, his face still red from the uncomfortable first encounter._ I just met a pretty girl instead. _

Sorry it's bin a wile, but Christmas and all so I do hope that you will forgive me. I would like to stress that this is very much a bonding story between are two protagonists, so they will first have to become friends before they can become anything more. I kind of based their romance off Flynn and Rapunzel's, only Merida would be more like Flynn and Hiccup would be more like Rapunzel. No love at first sight but they do help each other out with the problem the both share witch is their miscommunication between their parents. Mostly character building and banter between Hiccup and Merida form now on tell about chapter 18, but I promise to make it funny and exciting. There will be a big climax at the end and an epilogue so heads up for that. Only other announcement I have for you is my next update maybe in a little wile seeing that the plague of exams is at my high school again. More adventure is awaiting you oh fateful reader so do not worry. Please tell me what you think of the chapter, I read every single review twice. Happy New Year.

L.S


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